Hello Old Friend
by beginagin
Summary: After a tussle early on in high school, Hayner and Seifer are forced to ignore each other or risk expulsion. Four years later, Seifer suddenly becomes a part of Hayner's life again in a way neither could have expected.
1. Strangers Like Me

Here's a story I've been working on on-again-off-again for the past year or so. I feel I'm comfortably enough ahead to start posting once in a while.

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**Hello Old Friend**

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Up until a certain point in his life, Hayner was completely aware of what it felt like to feel _hate_. The strong burning in his heart, the feeling of bile on the back of his throat when he screamed, the _knowing_ that he could never trust in another person for as long as he lived. This person was his mortal enemy, his reason for wanting to fight.

Seifer Almasy.

"Even his name sounds royal. Like he expects something from us," Hayner mumbled from his corner of the table. It was only late into the first month of their freshman year of high school. Lunch table space had to be earned. Right now, they were sharing space with the freshman geek crowd a little bit of the Junior Wristcutters Association. Once the senior's graduated, the tables would shift and they would get better spots, but he hated wasting his life away in the dregs regardless.

It killed Hayner that Seifer, as a sophomore, got a window seat with his lackeys, something notably reserved for seniors and seniors _only_. It was just something else that the jerk could lord over him when they were passing each other in the halls, which happened more often than he'd appreciate.

The only thing Hayner was thankful for was that in the break between middle school and rejoining each other in high school, Seifer seemed to have cooled off slightly. Which even then meant that the usual beatings came once a week rather than every other day. It was a nice reprieve.

"Just don't look at him," Olette sighed. She was a genius. For years she had been preaching the 'ignore him and he'll go away' mantra. He knew that this was exactly the truth. The only reason why Seifer just _loved_ to bait him was because Hayner always took it like a chump. But it wasn't that easy. Hayner couldn't stop paying attention to Seifer because somehow that would mean he would _win_, and in this sick competition that had been going on for the last five years, Hayner just wouldn't have that.

Luckily, Hayner had friends. Olette Rousseau really was a genius, _seriously_. She was actually supposed to be in the eleventh grade by now, but she chose to stay behind to be with her friends. In the long run it may not be the smartest move, but it proved she was fiercely loyal as well.

Sitting next to her was Pence, a gamer and total nerd, but he was also brilliant at the rumor mill game. Everyone was shocked when, out of all the dolled up frosh that lined up for resident junior queen bee Selphie Tilmitt to inspect, she chose homely Pence from the sidelines for all the incoming middle school gossip. It was like she had a sixth sense for this kind of thing. Pence had that kind of high school status that Hayner could only dream of.

Lastly, there was Roxas Strife. He had an older brother who had already graduated, but other than that Hayner was still learning about him. Roxas came from a different middle school, and while he had a few friends from his old school as well, he and Hayner connected in their shared algebra classes and he'd been hanging out with them ever since.

Hayner was getting tired of his bicep getting gouged out every time one of the creepy anorexic goth kids nudged him. The table was crowded – the whole _school_ was crowded – and it was completely unfair that Seifer got to sit at a window seat on a table with _three_ empty spaces on it. If Hayner could just get rid of one more person there would be enough room for him and his friends.

"Where are you going?" Olette asked suspiciously as her eyes followed Hayner when he stood and started walking towards the sophomore tables.

"Just throwing out some trash," he muttered.

When it became clear that Hayner was making a b-line towards Seifer's table, Pence started to stand up to get a better view. The other kids sitting at their table were aware of the vendetta between the two boys and instantly started turning their heads, whispering, and standing up as well.

Seifer seemed to be keenly aware that the volume on the other half of the cafeteria had dropped significantly. Years of boxing lessons and real-world experience had built his skills to an almost superhuman scale. His Hayner-Senses were tingling. Looking across the table at his two friends, Raijin and Fuu both seemed to have their eyes trained on someone who was approaching the table behind him, but they were keeping quiet. He knew Fuu wouldn't speak unless it was an emergency, and Raijin was beginning to learn from her example. The buff man's reaction came just a little too late when Seifer saw his mouth twitch to try and get a warning out.

The blond punk turned around just in time to receive a rookie punch to the brow. Hayner wasn't incredibly strong, but what he lacked in muscle he made up for in speed. Before Seifer had a chance to stand up, Hayner had already spun around him and shoved him away from his chair.

"What'd I fuckin' do _this_ time, wimp?" Seifer cackled. Almost immediately the people sitting closest to the aisle between the two tables started jumping and running to get as far away as possible while the vying onlookers fought to get closer.

Olette, Pence, and Roxas couldn't see anything from where they were standing, but they didn't need to. They knew that Hayner was going to make a fool out of himself. He had already gotten a detention from the last time he picked a fight with Seifer in his first week. Something on this scale would mean expulsion.

Hayner threw another punch. Seifer dodged and landed a fist into Hayner's shoulder. Hayner recoiled and them jumped forward for some sort of melee attack. Somehow, Seifer was able to _catch_ him and _throw_ him across the fight circle at the windows. There were screams when the loud crash of broken glass rose above the crowd. Hayner hit his head on one of the table chairs as he landed and wasn't getting up.

"_Shit!"_ a boy shouted. It wasn't Seifer, but hearing a masculine voice sounding alarmed was enough to get a good portion of the crowd to clear away an extra ten feet. Hayner groaned and curled into the fetal position. Seifer was still standing there, but with blood on his face. A shard of glass had flown at him and left a slice diagonally across his nose and the image of it was the most visually terrifying thing Hayner had ever seen in his life. The older boy smirked and claimed victory.

"Once a wuss, _always_ a wuss."

There was a shrill cry from a whistle coming from a gym teacher that had been alerted by a hall monitor. He shouted angrily to get the crowd to split so he could make it through. "Almasy! Marshall! What were you thinking?!" he yelled, letting his sneakers crush the glass that had fallen onto the tiled floors to an even finer powder. He helped Hayner to his feet, trying to be careful but in no mood to be nice. "Diz's office, _now!"_

Hayner was left rubbing his head as he glared at Seifer angrily. All the older boy did was smirk. The coach was saying something about dignity and ignorance as they walked the short distance from the cafeteria to the main offices. Apparently someone had called ahead and alerted them of their arrival. The main secretary gave them a calculating glare before making them sit on a bench a wait. Before sitting down Seifer took some tissues from her desk and wadded them on his nose. He sat down closest to the door with a huff. Hayner sat as far on the opposite edge he could manage without looking foolish.

"I think I need to see a nurse," he told the secretary, having a hard time focused.

The coach overheard and didn't react kindly. "You'll sit down and _shut up_ until Diz is ready to see you."

The secretary looked at the coach warily. "Jim…"

"I mean it," he said to her. "I'm sick of their attitudes. They're just stupid teenagers lording themselves over campus." He turned the most palpable glare Hayner or Seifer had ever felt. "You two need to shape up because the _real_ world doesn't work this way, and in four years nobody's gonna give a _shit_ about you."

"_Jim!_" the secretary called out. "Thank you, that will be enough!"

No more than two seconds after the coach stormed out, there came a beep from the secretary's computer. She glanced at the note quickly and sighed. "The principal will see you now."

While Hayner was no stranger to that sentence, this was his first time hearing it in high school. He'd dealt with the vice principal only once before, and she acted like herding students was a game. He hadn't heard any stories about Diz, which made him that much more threatening. Although with the way Seifer was acting, he had to assume that he'd been in dozens of times before. Hayner sighed and decided to follow his example.

Inside the office was a large oak desk, mostly cleared with organized stacks of paper and a computer in the corner. There were three different diplomas from three different Ivy League colleges on the wall, all with his name on it. Sitting in a comfy leather chair under those framed sheets of paper was a confident looking man with blond hair with distinguished gray streaks of age. He smiled and invited the two boys to sit in the chairs opposite him.

"Mister Marshall, it's a pleasure," he said almost happily. "Janice tells me a lot about you." She was the vice principal. Being on a first name basis with the staff was either a blessing or a curse.

"Hm. How's your wife?" Seifer asked. Diz raised a brow and turned his attention to the older boy.

"I'm going to assume you're talking about the appendectomy. In which case, it went as well as those sorts of things can, and thanks for asking." Hayner noted a framed picture of an older woman and two daughters sitting on the filing cabinet also behind the desk. "But that's not why we're hear today, is it?"

"Hey, I've been doing pretty good so far!" Seifer insisted loudly.

"I know!" Diz replied, almost sarcastically. That tone from a teenager would have seemed obnoxious, but coming from a school official it was just incredibly odd. "It's been almost, _almost_ a whole week! Your parents must be so proud…" There was a quiet tone from his computer, probably an instant message from the secretary. "Okay, I'm bringing in a colleague of mine, a guidance councilor from SEED Academy."

Hayner's blood chilled. SEED Academy was a military boarding school for psychotic teenagers that actually _enjoyed_ being screamed at as a form of discipline. Another man entered the room, taller and younger than what Hayner had been expecting for this older principal's colleague. He was wearing black slacks and a slate gray shirt. His hair was a bit dramatic, with medium brown locks styled back to reveal a rather interesting scar across his face. Hayner was to terrified to guess how he received it. "Hello, Hayner. Seifer." His voice was quite, yet commanding.

Hayner wasn't entirely sure what about this man rubbed him the wrong way, but Seifer seemed to pick up on the same vibe. The man leaned against the edge of Diz's desk. "We're going to try an experimental procedure I've been working on back at the Academy to help your little problem."

"It's not my _problem_ dickwad, this wuss picked a fight with _me_."

The guidance councilor gave him a sharp glare. "Whatever. You sure as hell _finished_ it, right? I'm a little curious about why you guys even bother. As far as I'm aware there aren't gangs involved. No territory disputes involved in school or at home. Hayner, apart from this problem your grades are remarkably good for somebody who walks up to people and assaults them with no introduction."

Hayner opened his mouth to argue, and Seifer just glanced over at him and chuckled. The imposing man held up his hand to stop Hayner from saying anything, focusing his attention on the older delinquent blond. "And Hayner has a problem because the way you carry yourself around him is purposely arrogant. To be frank, Mister Almasy, you're asking for it."

"Sure, blame the victim."

"You walk around baiting him to make first blood. It's not exactly a surprise anymore when you rag on him all the time. Especially given your history together."

Hayner snickered slightly, causing the ice-cold eyes to rove over to him. "And _you_. Apparently this aggression has been going on since the fourth grade? If it weren't for your good grades you probably would have been suspended by now." The councilor picked up a manila folder, embarrassingly stuffed with papers, pink slips, yellow slips, and forms. "And despite all the phone calls, conferences, and anger therapy classes you _still_ feel a need to attack Mister Almasy without warning or cause."

"There's a cause!" Hayner objected. "You just said it yourself! He's so high-and-mighty you just want to punch him in the _face!_"

"You need to learn the difference between dreaming and doing. You can _dream_ about punching Seifer in the face as much as you want, I can't stop you, but there are rules, regulations and _laws_ against walking across the cafeteria and picking a fight simply out of the blue like that."

"So what are _you_ gonna do about it?" Seifer challenged. "Put it in our permanent records?" It wasn't a newsflash, Seifer's parents couldn't care less about his son's behavior. He was the middle child of five offspring produced by his redneck parents. They were willing to cut their losses and focus their attention on which of the other four kids would pay for their future life support.

"Yes, actually." The answer made the nervous twinge in Hayner's gut crawl. Seifer may not care about his collegiate future, but that didn't mean Hayner didn't. Most colleges aren't necessarily worried about a detention or two. A mark on his transcript about school bullying… Well, that was a hot-button topic these days. There had to be a loophole.

Diz took over by adding, "But we're going to try something out, and if this works until you've graduated, we've agreed to erase this incident from your file. It never happened."

The guidance counselor nodded. "This is a new procedure that we're going to try. It's a little process that adults do. Normally kids your age have to wait until an embarrassing college encounter before you find out that fighting is ignorance, but I'm going to tell you how it is right now."

"Which is?" Hayner asked.

The man smirked and pointed to them. "Here's how I want you to treat each other from now on. As far as you're concerned," he said to Hayner, moving his index finger towards Seifer, "he doesn't exist." Hayner was confused. He glanced over at Seifer who was rolling his eyes. It would be impossible to pretend that Seifer didn't exist. He was too loud, too obnoxious to just let that personality bounce off his back.

The councilor turned to Seifer and said the same thing. "And for you, Hayner is just a new freshman. A nameless face in this big school. When you pass each other in the halls, it's just another person. You won't talk about each other, you won't look at each other, you won't acknowledge each other."

The two students looked more than unsure. There was no way this could work. "And don't worry," Principal Diz added. "We'll help you with this, because Lord knows we don't have the budget to fix any more broken windows. From now on you'll have different lunches." He gave both boys a pensive look. "We're serious about this," he stated.

"I get it," Seifer said defensively, turning to look at Hayner. "The chicken wuss doesn't exist, easy."

Diz seemed less than pleased with Seifer's reaction, but figured that would be the best he could manage. "Hayner?"

The younger boy sighed dramatically, looking down at the floor. "Yes, sir."

In the end, this was like a wake-up call for Hayner. He had never heard stories about a faculty going so far to stop fights in their school. Was this something they were doing for themselves, or something they were doing for him? Hayner had always felt that his obsession with demoralizing Seifer was bordering on the edge of insanity. The way the bully would look down on him suggested Seifer was suffering from the same handicap.

Hayner remembered hearing stories from his grandmother about how there was a one true love for everyone on Earth. How every soul had some sort of divine match that was destined to live together in happiness forever. His feelings for Seifer felt something like this, but with hate. How the very instant you meet someone, without ever talking to them or meeting them, you know you just won't like them. It felt a lot like that.

As he was ushered out of the office, he thought about it more. If Seifer had never broken his toy in elementary school, the one that started this whole mess, and if Hayner hadn't felt the need to kick him in the shins with his soccer cleats right after, would they have been entirely different people? What kind of life would Hayner be living right now, what kind of person would he be, if he weren't dedicating his entire school life towards directing _hate_ at one person? It wasn't a question he felt comfortable asking, because he was sure he knew the answer.

The guidance councilor led them outside. "So are we agreed? No more paying attention to each other. You don't even exist. The teachers are all aware of your behavior, and if they see you two interacting, we'll know," he warned them seriously. Hayner glanced around the hall to the few students who happened to be walking around at that moment, most of them wide-eyed as if they were experiencing some kind of history. He swore he saw a gaping girl texting blindly with her eyes watching them from behind her locker door.

"I get it," Seifer confirmed. There was something unsettling about the optimistic way he was agreeing to all this. In a way, Hayner felt a bit insulted. How could Seifer just ignore so many years of torment and abuse on either end?

"And for love of God, go to the nurse, already. See if you need stitches." The guidance councilor waved Seifer away.

The freshman felt his throat clench slightly, out of rage, when Seifer made eye contact with him for the last time. "Later, loser."

With that, he turned and walked off. Not even a single word of remorse. Hayner had half the mind to tackle him from behind if it were for the councilor standing right there. "_Fuck_ off, Seifer!"

"_Hayner_," the man admonished, but he assumed it was Hayner's last hurrah and closure before this ended. "Go ahead and get to your next class. The bell will ring any minute."

His class was in the opposite direction of where Seifer was headed. He wanted nothing more than to just walk away and pretend like this never happened. Pretend that Seifer _never_ happened.

**oooOOOooo**

The first week was probably the hardest. The rumor mill at school was soul crushing and all knowing, and as soon as Selphie found out at Hayner and Seifer's little arrangement, half the school was holding their breaths for the biggest fight of the year. Every time they were in the same hall, the same courtyard, or anywhere within a hundred yards of each other Hayner could hear whispers everywhere.

But after the first week, the whispers started to die down. Students got tired of holding their breath. By the first month, Hayner doubted ever really liking the toy or game or whatever Seifer had ruined to begin with. Before he knew it, the semester was over. His grades were _improving_, his relationship with his friends seemed less strained. Olette and Pence were really proud of him, and Roxas opened himself up now that Hayner seemed less intense and was becoming an invaluable friend.

His life was looking up. Freshman year ended, and he entered Sophomore year with a grounding, a personality, and an understanding about how high school works. He graduated into becoming a Junior and started diving into extracurricular activities that took his attention even further away from everything that had bothered him before. He was an honor student, dabbled in jazz band, took part in intramural sports, and even started volunteering to beef up his college resumes.

Then, before he knew it… he was a senior. On top of that, he was the king of the school. Friendly, gracious, humble… Students simply loved being around him. Hayner wasn't about to complain. He didn't understand the true implications of the first day of school until he drove into campus bright and early and met up with his friends by the front gate. He noticed Olette had a big, secretive grin.

"…What?" he asked, a cautious smile on his face.

"You know what happens today?" she asked, her voice barely able to contain her excitement. Hayner was no good at guessing games and simply shrugged his shoulders. "This is your first school year without Seifer!"

It was at that moment that, before Hayner was even aware, that name became a blast from the past. He probably hadn't even _thought_ about Seifer for months, and that was when he was still in school. "Huh. Yeah, it is…"

Still with a smile on her face, she walked over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I'm _proud_ of you Hayner. You became the bigger man in this fight, and that's _really_ hard to do."

"Yeah, now you won't have to deal with him anymore, like, ever," Pence added, also all smiles. "I heard he moved to California to be, like, a _model_."

That shocked Hayner a little. A model? _Really?_ Seifer wasn't even that pretty, but then again his strongest memories of him were from those horrendous middle school years. "Hey, let's not talk about it too much," he pushed. "We've made it this far without talking about it. Let's just… file _that_ under embarrassing, young, and stupid."

"Hey, c'mon," Roxas added, nudging him in the side with his elbow as they started walking inside. "If you don't remember the past, you're doomed to repeat it."

"Well as long as he's West and I'm East, there's nothing to worry about," he sighed. Talking about Seifer was really bringing him down. The longer they spoke about it the harder it felt to remember. "And as long as that remains the case, there's nothing to worry about."

And so Senior year happened, and above all the regular school drama, sports, and politics, Hayner managed to send off three resumes to prospective universities. Colombia was his first choice, but even that seemed to be a stretch for Hayner's slightly flawed GPA. If it weren't for the freshman year he squandered being generally squirrelly and rebellious, he probably would have had a decent shot at being salutatorian. Places like Colombia didn't have interest in top-ten-percenters with a record.

His second choice was Brown for engineering and computing, which he was fairly sure he would get in, no problem. If all else failed, he sent in a resume to the local university that would be required to admit him since he was in the top three percentile. He also had scholarships for a few colleges who were willing to keep their doors open for the standard lower-class rags-to-riches cases. There were options in Tuscaloosa, San Diego, Richmond, and Boston.

His friends decided to make a pact. They wouldn't open their college admittance letters until they had received all of their results. As their last semester in high school began, letters started pouring in for Olette and Roxas, who applied to any accredited university that seemed worth their time. "Apply first, then choose which one you want to go to," was her logic. Unfortunately, since Hayner and Pence were at the shallow end of the monetary pool and couldn't afford all the admission fees, they had to wait along with all the other students.

It was just another Friday not long after classes had resumed after winter holiday. Hayner and his friends were walking over to his house to hang out when he stopped at the mailbox, as always, to get the mail for his parents. The letter on the very top spot had been stamped with the Colombia letterhead.

"Oh my God," Hayner mumbled.

"Oh my God!" Olette cried. "Oh my _God!_ I left all my letters at home!"

"Me too," Pence added. Everybody knew that Roxas had been keeping all twelve of his admissions letters in a folder in his backpack for just such an occasion. "We're gonna go get them. We'll be _right_ back."

Olette took off sprinting towards her house with a gleeful hum, while Pence started jogging in the opposite direction towards his own. While they were away, Hayner shuffled through the mail and found out that _all_ his letters were mailed on that very day, including letters from some of his scholarship schools. His palms were getting sweaty and he could feel his face heating up.

"I- I'm really nervous," he told Roxas. His blond friend was in the top five percentile, and only bothered applying for colleges in their state so he would be automatically admitted.

"Are you serious?" he asked. "The East Coast would be stupid not to have you."

Olette soon arrived, panting and sweating, with an armful of collegiate letterhead envelopes with her name on it. Pence walked in not long afterwards with at least five letters.

"Okay," Olette said happily. "…Who wants to go first?"

There was a short moment of silence as everyone glanced nervously at everyone else's letters. "Oh, screw this," Roxas said, tearing open a letter from a college up north.

"Dear Roxas Strife, congratulations on be admitted into Twilight University's Liberal Arts program!" he read with confidence.

"Go Roxas!" Olette said happily, tearing open a letter from Dartmouth, her first pick. "Dear Ms. Rousseau, we are delighted to inform you that the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aide have offered you a place in the Dartmouth class of 2005!" she shrieked, hurling her other, unopened envelopes into the air.

"No way!" Pence said with a huge grin, taking the letter from her and reading the first line. "You're a _genius,_ I knew it!"

"I called it!" Hayner declared. He knew Olette was a genius the moment he met her. He gave her a celebratory hug and let her run off into the other room so she could call her parents. While she was out, Pence opened a letter for his first choice. He read the first line in silence, but the grin on his face and the light in his eyes gave his friends the answer.

"So guess who's going to MIT next semester?"

"_Get out!_" Olette screamed from the other room. Apparently she had gotten off the phone with her parents and came barreling through the doorway to tackle Pence with a giant hug. "They're only like two hours away! We can totally make this work!" Pence and Olette had only been dating since last summer, but they were determined that it was destiny and would do anything for each other, the way best friends should.

Roxas laughed and smiled with his friends before he turned his attention to the one person in the room that had yet to open a letter. "Hey, dude, you're up."

Some of his envelopes were feeling suspiciously light, but he figured the real meat of the information wouldn't come in until he committed to somewhere. The first letter in the stack was his first choice, Colombia. He started mumbling the first line aloud. "Dear Mr. Marshall, The Committee on Admission has examined your application for admission to Colombia University and has carefully considered your credentials, _blah, blah blah…_"

His face paled as he read the following sentence to himself.

"_We deeply regret that we are unable to include you among those selected for the class entering in the upcoming fall semester."_

The letter continued from there, spilling forth excuses and apologies, even a blue, mass-printed copy of the Dean of Admission's signature. He glanced up slightly to see his friend's faces staring expectantly at him. Olette was the only one to seem slightly warily of Hayner's silence.

The boy just smirked and threw the denial letter over his shoulder. "Who needs Colombia, right?" he chuckled, picking up his letter from Brown grimly. His friends were waiting on pins and needles for him to read it.

He tore the envelope open, ripping a bit of the letter itself in the process. This time he read the letter quietly. _"Dear Mr. Marshall, The Committee on Admission has examined your application for admission to Brown University and…"_ No. _**NO**__. "Regret… unable… sincere apologies… good luck…"_

"I didn't make it into Brown."

Olette was the first to respond almost immediately. She frowned and reached across the table to grip his arm. "Hayner, I'm so sorry. Ivy League schools are so hard to get into, though. My dad was an alumni from Dartmouth and that means a lot to those kinds of places…"

"Yeah, but…" Hayner turned to her with a confused look, "it's _Brown_."

Roxas grimaced and reached across the table to the rest of the college letters that were resting there, picking up the one from the local university. "This one feels a little fatter, I bet you got accepted here." Of course, colleges wouldn't waste paper on a reject, so usually it was only a single letter for denials and maybe a few more pamphlets if prospective students needed a bigger push to enroll.

Hayner looked down at the letter in Roxas' hand and frowned. He _really_ didn't want to waste his time at the local university. He applied on a whim because he knew he'd have to be accepted. The part that hurt the most was that he wasn't even considered for a spot on their registry. In the letters it mentioned he was outright _denied._ Not even placed on a waitlist or suggested to try again next semester.

"Maybe you can call them?" Pence suggested. Olette lit up at the idea.

"Yeah, call the admission's board!" she exclaimed, taking the denial letters from Hayner's hands. "Their number's at the bottom. It's only four-thirty. Go ahead and give it a shot. They might tell you why you weren't enrolled. If anything, it'll show that you're _really_ interested and they might consider you again."

"…You think?"

"You've already got your worst answer," she said, holding up the letters. "What's the worst they could tell you now?"

She had a point. The number was printed in a small, classy font on the bottom of Brown's denial letter. All he had to do was call and see if they had any notes on _why_ he couldn't be admitted. He nodded towards his friends and stood up. "I'll be back in a bit…" he mumbled, taking the kitchen phone into the den to make the call in private.

There was a ring tone for a few moments before an automated speaker answered. Hayner pressed one for English, three to speak with someone about application procedures, five for miscellaneous questions, pound to repeat the options, and finally seven to be connected to a human being. After fifteen minutes of holding, a frazzled woman named Cathy answered and asked him what he needed.

"Uh- Yeah, my name is Hayner Marshall, and I just got a letter from you saying that my application for admittance had been denied…"

"Well, sir, the application process for Brown is challenging and competitive. We receive well over the amount of applications than we can admit into-"

"I understand that," Hayner said. He was told from the very beginning that he probably wouldn't get into an Ivy League university because of how competitive it was, but he figured he would have at least been waitlisted. "My application was right-out denied, and I would like to know what was on my application for that to happen… You know, for future reference…"

After some more finagling, being forwarded to a different operator, giving his birth date, social security number, and first-born son, he finally managed to get an answer. "It appears in your transcript history was a little… convoluted."

Hayner arced a brow at this. "Convoluted _how_?"

The operator sighed loudly and the sounds of computer keyboard typing filled the void. "You've had more than one occasion where you took part in school bullying. Apparently it got to the point where a _professional_ had to be brought in?"

"But… that was _freshman year_." It seemed like ancient history, as far as Hayner was concerned. He had a clean record for over three years now. In fact, we was positive that Principal Diz and their councilor told him that his past with Seifer would be wiped from his record if there weren't any more altercations. "I may have had a rough past, but I was able to turn it around… I don't want to brag, but my teachers call me a star pupil… Did the letters of recommendation really mean nothing?"

There was more sighing, more typing, until the woman finally spoke again. "That I don't know. The recruiter didn't make any notes about it, but it never hurts to apply again next year. Go to an accredited college for two semesters and work hard on your grades. Show the Admission's Board that you have what it takes to not just pass, but _excel_ at higher education. Keep your nose down and forget about bullying. You know how competitive Ivy League schools are." If Hayner heard that warning one more time he was going to bash someone's teeth in.

"So… all this happened because I started a fight with Seifer Almasy?" Hayner asked, talking slowly. The lady on the other end seemed unsure of how to respond.

"If that was the case, then possibly. Like I said, try again next year and-" Hayner didn't let her finish, clicking the end call button and grunting furiously.

"Hayner?" Olette called from the kitchen. As much as they wanted to give him privacy, they couldn't help but overhear. "…Is everything okay?"

_**oooOOOooo**_

It was a clerical error. The man in charge of keeping up with transcriptions was hired after the settlement was made between Hayner and Diz regarding Seifer. He didn't know he was supposed to erase the warning. The fact that Hayner had bullied Seifer had been lurking on his high school transcript for four whole years, unnoticed by any other of the main office staff.

Hayner was furious. Hayner's mom was a livid, fire-spilling mess. They reported at Diz's office and made him change his transcript, but by then it was too late. The open spots on Brown and Colombia were already filled, and wouldn't be accepting new applicants until q-drops, and even then their waiting queue was already filled as well. It happened so fast.

"You know, honey," his mom said warily a week later. "Getting into _any_ college is a feat these days. Don't let this get you down. You can go to Twilight U with Roxas and maybe transfer to Brown your sophomore year? That sounds like fun, huh?"

For some reason, Twilight University wasn't really where Hayner wanted to go. He was automatically accepted there, yes, but only because of his grades in school. There was something a bit cheat-ish about the concept that he didn't feel comfortable with. There were other schools, however, that he was offered _scholarships_ for.

Later that night, he sat on his bed with a calculator and looked at the information at hand. Some schools offered free housing with his scholarship, some offered to pay for books, while others gave a certain amount off his course fees if he kept up good grades. Although he lived on the east coast, he found out that the scholarship that was offered by a college in California, Traverse College, would make it cheaper to attend than if he stayed home and went to Twilight U.

There was a thought niggling in the back of his mind of something Pence had said at the beginning of the school year that he didn't even know he remembered. _Seifer is in California_. Hayner felt a faint, well-concealed rage in his heart, and he knew that his feelings for the older bully never truly went away.

The following morning he discussed his idea with his parents.

"I dunno, kiddo," his dad sighed. "California?"

"You'll save three thousand dollars every year I go there. Even with moving costs, it'd be cheaper if I go to Traverse instead of staying in town for Twilight U."

"But we're willing to spend the extra three thousand to keep you nearby," his mom stated, knowing how ridiculous she sounded. She shook her head and looked to her husband. "What do you think?"

"He love you, Hayner. But Traverse College? Really? If you're going on scholarship, it can make transferring to Brown a little difficult. It might not be worth at all it if you're transferring…"

"Yeah, but…" Hayner had a difficult time laying out the words. He was being _called_ to California. If he didn't go, it seemed like one of those decisions that would haunt him the rest of his life.

"You used to be all about adventures when you were little," his mom sighed. "It started with exploring in the backyard, and in backstreets and alleys around the train depo… I went gray early just trying to keep up with you. I felt a little sad, because it seemed like so much of that went away during high school."

It had been such a long time since the Seifer incident that even his parents rarely brought it up. It would be a stretch to say that they condoned his behavior back then, but it was easy to believe that the school system metaphorically beat the adventurous tar out of him when every time he spoke out became a means for detention. Now that the system had backfired, Hayner was finding it less and less reasonable to stay obedient.

"If you want to go to Traverse," his mom said, reaching over and placing her hand in her husband's, "you have our blessing."

While his father was more concerned with the simple logistics of the plan, he didn't have a decent argument why _not_ to let his son go. Hayner nodded, grinning like a fool, and rushed out the door to school. He didn't understand why he was so happy about the idea. The thought of moving so far away from everything he knew was understandably horrifying, but he couldn't stop smiling.

When he told Roxas, Pence, and Olette the news, there were mixed reactions. Roxas was silent, Pence laughed, and Olette nearly cried.

"The west coast is going to eat you alive," Pence chortled. "There's _no way_ you'll fit in."

"You'll never get into Ivy League with _Traverse_ on your transcript!" Olette lamented. She turned to soak her tears into Pence's shoulder as the too boys shared a certain look and eye roll.

Roxas finally called himself to attention while Pence tried to console his girlfriend. "Isn't that where…" the blond started, but trailed off.

Hayner glanced at him. "Isn't what?" They shared a very distinct look. Roxas raised a brow and shrugged his shoulders with a certain meaning. Hayner remained purposefully ignorant. "I could be going to California for any number of reasons. I think it'd be cool to check out the beaches. The nearest one is only an hour away from the school." He turned his attention back to the group as a whole. Olette seemed more collected and was willing to listen to what he had to say.

"I guess they are pretty," she sniffled.

Hayner had been to the beaches near Twilight Town a handful of times with his friends in the past years. They were usually surrounded by pines and early mornings were too cold to swim. He had yet to visit a beach with sun-bleached sands and palm trees. The waves always seemed so much bigger from what he'd seen in movies and maybe he'd finally get to learn how to surf. The more he thought about it, the more he was looking forward to moving to California.

"And besides, there's Christmas and summer vacations, too. I'll be staying at the dorms and they'll be closed during then. I'll _have_ to come home sometime," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, right," Pence sighed towards Roxas and Olette. "Once he hits November in the west he'll forget all about spending another winter over here."

"He wouldn't," Olette insisted. "Would you?"

Hayner rolled his eyes. "What could possibly keep me in California?" he laughed. "That place is plastic."

Pence turned to Roxas. "You've been awfully quiet lately? Anything to say to our abruptly departed?"

"Sure, I guess," Roxas mumbled with a shrug. "When d'you leave?"

_**oooOOOooo**_

Paperwork was filed. Housing arrangements were made. Half of Hayner's belongings were sold, and most of whatever was left was locked away in storage. Classes were scheduled. Plane tickets were bought. The eve of the big move found Hayner alone with Roxas, Pence, and Olette in their usual hangout, a safe alleyway hidden in the shadows of one of the main thoroughfares of town.

"I can't believe it," Olette sighed. "I don't know if I can last a whole month without seeing everybody, let alone four…"

She was staying in town another week. Pence followed, leaving in two. Roxas was staying in town with his parents during freshman year, since he was attending the local university.

"It won't be so bad," Pence promised, reaching over and squeezing her hand. Their eyes met and held for a moment, and he smiled crookedly. Hayner let them have their moment and focused on Roxas.

"So how long do you think you'll last before you decide to move out?" he prodded.

Roxas shook his head and took a nip out of his soda. "If I had it my way, I wouldn't even be there right now. They said they'd help out with my apartment if I can keep my grades up the first year." He sighed loudly and leaned against a brick wall. "It's gonna seem like high school never ended, I swear."

Hayner stewed on that last comment a while, eating the last sea salt bar of his summer. This would probably be the last time he'd see his old friends for nearly half a year. What kind of person would he be when he returned? What would he have learned at school that would change his views on the world? What kind of friends would he make? Part of the reason why he wanted to go to school so far away was to escape the feeling of college being an extension of high school. The small part he had been ignoring was his real feelings on the matter.

How can he say he's moving across the country to escape the past when his whole reason for doing so was to find the man who destroyed his chance at a future?

_**oooOOOooo**_

Hayner had spent a week and a half on campus, and most of that time was spent exploring campus on the phone with Olette.

"Where are you now?" she asked.

"On my way to the library. The other library. There's like eight libraries." This one would be the third one he explored since arriving. Supposedly it had the most engineering texts that his orientation mentors told him he'd spend sixty-seven percent of his time plowing through before the semester was over.

"Only eight?" she mused.

The library Hayner was venturing in was like a big cement block. It was the most uninteresting-looking structure he had ever seen. He supposed it was suited for an engineering major. Hayner rolled his eyes at Olette and stepped inside, enjoying the blast of air conditioning. The entrance led to a large atrium at least five stories tall, where silent rules hadn't been implemented yet. There were lots of chairs and couches around, and a small satellite coffeehouse set up in the corner.

"They have coffee here," Hayner noted. "The building's not as pretty as the art one, but at least I won't have to go across the street for it."

"What was that? You're breaking up," Olette replied, her voice heavy with static. The big block of a building didn't have many windows, and the layers of cement and steel probably weren't helping.

"I'll have to let you go. I still need to find that book I need for class," Hayner said. The response he got from Olette was so garbled and fuzzy that he didn't even bother trying and simply hung up the phone. She was a smart girl, she'd figure it out. There was a large map with a layout of the library pinned up at the wall. Hayner approached it and tried to find out where Engineering books would be found. His best luck would be the third floor.

He took the stairs, and when he reached the top he had this strange feeling. Like there was a shadow in the corner of his eye. He turned and looked behind him and saw a boy standing in the recessed entryway of the elevator door, right by the stairs. It looked like he was hiding. When they made eye contact, the boy frowned and shook his head.

Hayner was debating to just walk downstairs and out of the library after that weird moment or to continue finding his book when another boy bounded up the stairs. "Hey, hey!" he said towards Hayner. Hayner looked over his shoulder to make sure it was actually him he was talking at. He noticed the other boy hiding in the alcove stepped back.

"Uh… Yes?" Hayner said. What on earth was going on?

The boy, panting from rushing up the steps, was wearing red shorts and a black shirt. His skin was tanned from the sun, and his brown hair spiked in almost every direction. "Did you see a guy? Tall, light hair, blue eyes? Yellow shirt?"

That described the boy hiding behind the brunette's back. Crap, were they playing _hide and seek_? The last thing Hayner wanted to do was blow anyone's cover. "Nnnno. I haven't. Why?"

"We're just-" Before he could finish his sentence, the boy in hiding jumped out from his spot, let out a ferocious _RRRAAAHH!_ and shot his friend in the back with a water pistol. The brunette broke out into a huge grin and turned. "You cocky cock!"

"Five minute rule."

"You _suck_."

"Count to three hundred."

"Can I at least get a hint?"

The taller boy thought about it for a moment. "You will never feel a greater power, or sample all the bonny flowers, and get attention at every hour, from my magic…"

"…Your magic what."

"That's it. Can't tell you. Later." And he sprinted off down the stairs.

The brunette boy sighed angrily towards the ceiling. "_Art majors_," he spat, turning to Hayner. "Did you understand any of that?"

Hayner was having difficulty processing thoughts into words. "What?"

"I know. Me neither. He was rhyming, though. Power, Flower, Hour…"

Oh, right. "The clock tower," Hayner said. "There's a garden right by it at the east courtyard and every hour it chimes."

The boy looked at him like a savior. "That's perfect! Thanks! Now I gotta wait three minutes. This is the worst part." He pulled out his phone and started tapping keys. "What's your name?"

"Uh. Hayner."

"Cool. I'm Sora. Do you have a water gun?" he asked, pulling a neon orange pistol from one of the cargo pockets on his shorts. Hayner hadn't owned a water gun since he was in middle school. He slowly shook his head and Sora tossed it too him. It was heavy with the weight of water and he fumbled with it for a moment, but managed to grab hold before it fell.

"I don't- I mean, what are you guys doing?"

Sora glanced up from his phone. "Water tag."

"In a _library_."

Sora looked up for a moment, surveying the corners of the area before his eyes landed on a security camera by the elevator, where they were in plain sight. "You're right. We've had this problem before. Water guns look bad on black and white security cameras. We should go. The reception here's horrible."

Sora started trotting down the stairs, eyes glued to his cell. Hayner was willing to leave it at that, but realized he was still holding the gun, and promptly followed. "I-is this some kind of orientation thing?" he asked Sora.

"No, just dicking around." He put his cell phone in his back pocket. "Riku's an old friend of mine. He's a second-year. I'm a first-year, and… There she is!" Sora perked up and waved his hand as they reached the ground level. A small girl standing in the middle of the atrium saw them and waved back. "And that's Kairi. She's a first-year, too."

"Why do you keep saying 'first-year?'" Hayner asked. Where he was from, he would be called a freshman, not a first-year.

"Riku told me it's a college thing. The chances of someone graduating in four years these days is the same as someone spitting on the sun. So for the years that it matters, the first four, you just call each other by how long you've been attending. After that, you sort of drop the labels and you're just a 'student.'"

"People don't graduate in four years?" Hayner asked. According to what the college was asking of him, it would require eighteen credit hours a semester to get his degree. That hardly seemed like a heavy course load.

"Well, considering one of Riku's friends is a 'seventh-year' or a 'third-year-senior,' he prefers to just be a 'student.'"

Hayner wasn't sure about the idea of being twenty-five and still in college. That's when most people had a job and a family, right?

"Who's this?" Kairi asked as they approached. She was a slight girl with razor-edged red hair, but a friendly smile. "New recruit?"

"This is Hayner. He's the best and the bravest," Sora said, wrapping his arm around Hayner's shoulders and patting him in the chest. "We think Riku's gone to the clock tower."

"I'm always the last to find you guys," she sighed, turning around to lead the way out of the library. Hayner noticed she had a water pistol in her back pocket, too. "From now on let's work together. Don't separate the party."

"Roger," Sora replied with a mock salute, even though Kairi couldn't see. "So, what's your major?"

It took Hayner a moment to realize Sora was speaking to him. "Huh? Oh. Engineering."

Kairi perked up at this. "Really? Me, too!" Hayner had heard so many stories about how engineering was only for nerdy boys, and girls were a luxury. Even if that rumor were true, he guessed it was fortunate that he found a lady friend from his department so early. That is, if he felt comfortable enough calling this strange trio of students his _friends_. "Where are you from?" she asked.

"Twilight Town. Little coastal town up on the East Coast."

"_East_ Coast?" Sora asked. "Dude, what are you doing so far away from home? And _why_ would you want to come to Cali? I'd kill to live out East."

"I hear they actually have _seasons_ there," Kairi mentioned. "Like… _winter_. With _snow_."

Snows in Twilight Town were more like blizzards. Hayner never understood why people from the southwest had such a fixation on it. "Well, where're you guys from?" Considering their reaction, probably somewhere nearby.

"Riku, Kairi, and I are from Destiny Islands, a couple miles out west off the coast," Sora answered. Hayner knew Destiny Islands, if only because he'd spent so many sleepless nights watching the Travel Channel explore the nation's top beaches as the snow piled up outside his window. Destiny Island was famous for its white sands and epic waves.

"So do you guys… surf at all?"

"That's Riku and Kairi's territory," the brunette replied. "I'm more of a sand castle man, myself."

"That's so cool!" Hayner said, turning his attention to the redheaded girl still a step and a half in front of them. "We never got any waves in our harbor. I always wanted to try it…"

"Then we should!" Kairi said happily. "We don't have time before school starts, but I promise you'll be a surfing champ by the time you go home next summer!"

This just made Hayner elated. He thought about going out into the sun, getting a tan, running around in the shallow beach waters and getting the taste of salt on his tongue, the grit of sand between his toes. He wished they could go _now_. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts about beaches that he almost missed Sora's next questions.

"Huh?"

"I said, why are you here? There're lots of schools out east, right? What made you choose California?"

Oh. _Oh_. "I was just in the mood for a change of pace. You know. This is the time of life that's good for that, right?"

"Did you have a lot of friends in Twilight Town?" Kairi asked.

"I had friends," Hayner said, remembering all the people in class who helped him get where he was today. The faces of fellow students he shared classes and neighboring lockers with, all of which would be lost as time went on, but he would always have his best friends. "Roxas, Pence, and Olette. Roxas was a little serious, couldn't take a joke, but he wanted what was best for everyone. Pence loved to joke around, and loved _learning_, for better or for worse. Olette was the smartest but always kind of a dramatic. She didn't like the idea of me moving across the country…"

"Yeah, our parents were pretty broken up that we were leaving, but you pretty much _have_ to. The only thing on Destiny is a cruddy community college, and nobody back home is really impressed in an underwater basket weaving degree," Sora commented as they approached the clock tower in the center of campus.

"All right, keep a look out," Kairi advised. Hayner remembered the water pistol and held it up.

"Do you need this?" he asked Sora.

"Nah, I'll be alrr_RRIGHT_!" Sora's eyes widened over Hayner's shoulder and the brunet grabbed his shoulders and pulled him aside. Hayner felt the stomach-jilting sensation of ice-cold water soaking into the fibers of his shirt. Kairi was already halfway across the courtyard, and once Hayner had a chance to turn around Sora was already ducking behind a recycle bin.

Riku walked up to him, sporting a water gun styled like a sniper rifle in bright neon blue and yellow. "Don't worry," he said. "You'll catch on. You're smart, aren't you?"

Hayner was thoroughly drenched and wasn't really in the mood to play along. "What?" he mumbled, thinking about how he'd have to go back to his apartment and change clothes, maybe even take a shower… He hadn't even finished unpacking yet. Now that doing laundry cost _money_ he had to be careful with the way he treated his clothes.

"My riddle. 'Clock Tower,' right? That was you? Sora wouldn't have known how to solve it and he wouldn't have remembered it long enough to repeat it to Kairi."

"I would too!" Sora shouted from behind the bin.

Hayner sighed and hoped the fresh California sun would help dry his shirt quickly. "So what does this mean, then? Are you going to hide again?"

"I'm feeling a truce," Riku sighed. "It'll be getting dark soon. I wanted to eat."

"Eat?" Kairi asked, popping out from behind a tree with all context of a water pistol war forgotten. "We should go to that cafeteria in the dorm hall. All you can eat pizza."

"I heard about people sneaking in with Tupperware and making off with enough pizza to last them a week," Sora said, suddenly appearing by Hayner's side. "I'm in."

"Born in," Kairi added.

Riku nodded. "Alright, let's go."

The three turned and started walking off towards the dorms. Hayner wasn't incredibly hungry and wondered if it was okay to follow them. He hadn't been directly invited anyway, and maybe it'd be better if he-

Kairi squirted him on the head with her water pistol. "Hey, you coming?"

"Uh," Hayner stumbled, "y-yeah, sorry." He caught up with the group with a feeling of gleeful levity. _No way_ did he just make his first college friends that easily. He always thought this was something you had to work for and achieve. Finding a new group of friends so quickly would definitely make the rest of the year go by just as fast.

And, in a way, he was right. Before he knew it he was walking into his first lecture class that was supposed to teach everything he already knew about computers for his future engineering classes. He glanced around the taller, auditorium-style seats and saw a fleck of pink in a sea of black tee shirts and greasy hair. Kairi saw Hayner enter the room almost immediately grinned and waved her hand for him to come over.

All the other boys in the class who'd been staring at Kairi from the corner of their eyes looked defeated as Hayner made his way up the stairs, shimmied down the row of chairs, and placed his backpack by his seat. "Been waiting long?" he asked, sitting down.

"Not terribly. I have a Lit class right before this in the building next door. It's a quick walk." She had her computer open and was already well settled with eleven tabs open on her internet browser. However as soon as the professor walked in and stood at the front of the class, she hid the browser and quickly opened up Word, fingers at the ready.

Hayner only brought a spiral and pencils with him, feeling a little backwards from all the students with laptops open and taking notes of every little thing the professor said. The professor introduced himself and the TAs, and they passed out the syllabus to all the students in the hall.

The real bullet point was when he said the magic words, "All the slideshows for class will be posted at the end of the day."

"Well, _sweet_," Kairi said, shutting her laptop with a quick and delicate fingertip. "Wanna go meet up with the guys for some ice cream?"

Judging by her tone and the way she was sliding her laptop into her backpack, she was talking about _now._

Which was how Hayner ended up at a pop-up ice cream stand in the middle of the campus square instead of in his engineering lecture. Although according to the syllabus, everything seemed rather banal and common sense. Hayner wasn't terribly worried. Sora and Riku were eating sundaes while Kairi and Hayner enjoyed cones.

"There's this restaurant I want to try out," Sora announced, stabbing the banana with his spoon. "It's downtown. Really swanky. My friend said he met a movie star there once!"

Riku looked unconvinced. "A friend? When was this?"

"A new friend," Sora replied. "In one of my other classes. He's older and handsomer than you. Satisfied?" He turned towards Hayner and Kairi as Riku rolled his eyes and waiting for Sora to continue. "Okay, so maybe not a _movie star_ so much as, y'know, like a model I guess? That one dude from that show? That one?"

"That one show," Kairi said.

"The one on channel three. The one with the three guys? And that one girl with the blonde hair."

"Ahuh," Riku said, smirking with his elbows propped on the table and his cheeks in his palms. "Go on."

Sora was getting more aggravated as he tried to remember the details. "Jeez! She's like this struggling actress-"

"In real life or in the show?" Kairi asked.

"In the show! She's this struggling actress who lives in a town home with these three other guys in New York. One's a jock and kind of a bully, one's a nerd in the _worst_ way, and one's a hipster douchebag. My friend said he met the jock character at that restaurant I want to go to."

"Oh, you mean _Tetralogy_," Hayner said. "I've seen blips about it online, but I haven't actually watched it."

"You should," Sora replied. "Are we agreed, then? The place is called Huckabee's." He pointed to Riku and Kairi. "Huckabee's? Huckabee's?" And lastly pointed to Hayner. "Huckabee's?"

Once again it looked like Hayner was being pulled into another side quest with Sora, who was turning into a force to be reckoned with. Once he finally broke away from his new friends for the day, he made it a point to call his old ones. It was later in the evening when he was alone in his dorm that he gave Olette a call, and she happened to be with Pence at the time.

"_So, how was the first day?"_

"Okay, I guess. I only have one class on Tuesdays and New Girl Kairi convinced me to skip and get ice cream…"

"_Oh, and is New Girl Kairi turning into Just Friends Kairi? Potential of becoming More Than Friends Kairi?"_

"Not like that," Hayner said with a grimace. He caught himself wondering why he was grimacing at the idea. Perhaps Kairi seemed so far into friend territory that thinking of her in anyway else felt borderline incestuous. It also helped having Sora and Riku as examples of how to act around a girl who wasn't Olette. "We met up with New Guy Sora and Art Student Riku… There's talk about going downtown sometime next week, after we've settled into our classes."

"_Ohh, that sounds like fun! I haven't really had time to explore outside of campus much, besides driving to Michigan for Pence… He needs to get a car!"_

Hayner could hear the muffled sound of Pence teasing her over the line. They talked back and forth for a moment, and Hayner turned on the TV and kicked his shoes off. The television was on channel three, and had a short promotional spot for the show Sora had been talking about earlier, the one with the actor his friend met at Huckabee's. The spot only featured the actress, but it led Hayner's mind to wander.

Sora had said something about the actor being a model, and…

His attention was brought back to his phone call when it occurred to him that Olette had asked him a question. "Sorry, what?"

She laughed, _"I asked if you had any plans for winter vacation yet. I was chatting with Roxas online earlier and he said something about skiing."_

After spending a few golden weeks in California, Hayner doubted he'd ever want to return to soggy, cold New England anytime soon. He still had a few good months to make a decision as far as holiday plans went. "I don't know. It depends on what my parents have planned for Christmas," he answered with a hint of distraction as he pulled his laptop out of his bag. "Hey, listen, something's come up. I'll talk to you guys later, alright?"

"_Sure thing. I'll call you later then!"_

He tossed his phone at the foot of his bed and opened up his web browser on his computer. A quick search for _Tetralogy_ revealed an IMDB page. The actor who played the model-slash-jock Sora was talking about was a man named Balthier Bunansa. According to his profile page, he was an easy ten years older than Hayner. He sighed and typed his fingers on the keyboard softly. After a moment, he clicked on the search bar and slowly typed in a new name.

"_Seifer Almasy."_

He frowned as he typed it, and almost closed his eyes when he hit the enter key. The name revealed no results. He sighed loudly, in an emotion he labeled as 'angry,' and put his laptop away. Without thinking too hard for the rest of the night, he turned his attention to the mindless sitcoms of channel three.

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

_Thank you for reading. More to follow._


	2. Hakuna Matata

_Thanks so much for the positive response! I know that Hayner and Seifer aren't exactly the most popular pairing of Kingdom Hearts, but I've always been a big fan of Seifer and I like Hayner since he can be either the straight man or the funny man. I consider three reviews after just one chapter (and kind of a long chapter!) to be a big deal for my long-winded writing style. This story takes place at "Traverse College" in "California" but it's actually based strongly on the college I went to in Texas. I'm not sure if colleges in Texas differ much from colleges in California, but I did recently visit the University of Florida and it was pretty similar to my old campus. I'm just assuming that most big colleges are the same. ANYWAY- here's the next chapter. Hope y'all enjoy!_

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

**Hello Old Friend**

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

Hayner wasn't entirely sure what to make of his new friends. He had to try really hard not to compare them to his old ones from back home. Kairi was _kind_ _of_ like Olette, in that they were both girls, but Olette never really wore makeup or obsessed over fads the way Kairi did. Hayner wasn't used to being around girls like that. At first he was worried that it would become annoying, but following Kairi's antics was becoming more endearing. She was one of those Cool Girls that people talk about, but are difficult to see from the surface.

Sora was _sort of_ like Pence, in that they were both boys with brown hair. Pence was a super-genius who hid his intelligence well, and Sora was just lucky he got accepted to a college at all. The main difference was Sora seemed to spend so much time outside, and that was something Hayner had to get used to. It was California, the land of beaches and sunshine, even though Hayner hadn't actually seen a west coast shoreline yet.

And then there was Riku who was… well, he was strong willed, quiet, and slightly neurotic. It hit a little too close to home with Roxas, and the more time Hayner spent with him the more he felt like he owed his old friend that ski trip visit. Riku was way more artistically talented than Hayner thought his friends gave him credit. He'd had his work on display on campus already and it had only been a couple weeks into the semester.

That was where Hayner stood, in front of a series of displayed student art that had landed itself in the lobby of the business building where Hayner was leaving one of his applied mathematics classes. Riku had decided to do something crazy with acrylic paint that played with the shadows the lumps of dried paint produced.

He was pretty much lost in thought until he felt some knuckles sock him on his shoulder.

"Hey. We're gonna go sometime this weekend, I think." Sora. Hayner turned and turned and saw just as Sora gave a passing glance to the painting Hayner was admiring. "Oh, the business building? Good for him. All the rich kids are business majors. That's the best place to have art on display."

Hayner had to backtrack a moment. The last time he saw Sora was in the morning when he was scarfing toast with him and Kairi before leaving for his literature discussion group. The final topic of debate had been when would be a good time all four of them weren't busy to go to Huckabee's, that upscale bar-slash-restaurant downtown that Sora wanted to go to see movie stars.

"Oh, yeah, to that one place…" Hayner mumbled. "It wasn't Applebee's. Help me out here."

"No, not Huckabee's. Huckabee's is out."

"Is it?"

"Closed. Shut down by the institutional health committee buzzkillers bureau association of America or whatever," Sora said, flicking his wrist. "Huckabee's was dumb anyway. We're going someplace new. Riku says he can get us in."

Going someplace that required to have an _in_ was tempting. "When are we doing this?"

"Riku's free this Friday."

"I have an Honor's meeting that evening. It shouldn't last very long, but by the time I get out and make it downtown it'll be too late for dinner. What about Saturday?"

"Kairi and I already bought tickets for a movie."

"Bummer. Sunday, then?"

Sora looked a little crestfallen. "Going out to eat on Sundays suck. I have a difficult time enjoying myself when I'm filled with the constant dread of my freshman homeroom kicking off at eight in the morning…"

Hayner started walking towards the exit and Sora followed beside him. "That's your fault, not ours."

"Can't you just skip your meeting?"

"My Honors meeting? No, dude, I'm here on a _scholarship_ and if any of my grades slip then I'm hosed. I have to stay in the Honors programs to keep my GPA up, and that means not skipping meetings."

The Honors meetings were nothing special, at least after the introductory meeting that Hayner went to on a Friday two weeks ago. All the Honors Engineering kids introduced themselves and the main point of the meetings were to keep track of everybody's progress and to also act as a tutoring session if anybody had questions. Some of the classes were mandatory, but he was under the assumption that it was okay to skip if he wanted to. It wasn't too different from Sora's freshman homeroom seminar he had once a week.

"Tell you what," Sora drawled. "How about Kairi, Riku, and I meet up for a quick dinner and you can meet up with us afterwards."

"Afterwards?" Hayner chuckled. "For what? Bus all the way downtown for dessert?"

"One, they have _awesome_ cheesecake, and two, they have a bar."

Hayner stopped mid-step and almost tripped. "A bar? Like with… beers?"

"And spirits! Why? _Ohhh_ have you never drank before?"

Being a generally popular person in high school opened up a lot of doors for Hayner and house parties. His only experience with alcohol had been some kind of beer byproduct in a red Solo cup at Selphie Tilmitt's graduation party. He had enough to be what he figured was the "buzzed" feeling he heard about in movies, but it really just made him feel dizzy and he had to sit in a lawn chair by the pool until the feeling went away. At least it was better than Pence drunkenly jumping in the pool with his clothes on and his phone in his back pocket.

"No. No, it's nothing. Sure, but… I'm not- _None of us are_ twenty-one yet. Don't they usually card at places like that?"

Sora returned with a smirk. "Not if your family is Riku's family."

"And what's so special about Riku's family?" Hayner asked, shrugging his shoulders in defeat. He had a feeling he knew what was coming next. Sora gave him a mock-salute and started walking away. "Oh, so that's it, then?" Hayner called after him. "He's just one big enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a mystery, isn't he?"

Sora waved and walked off into the sunset.

A quick Google search later revealed that Riku's beloved grandparents owned the production studio that filmed _Tetralogy_ and about a dozen other sitcoms, effectively making Riku a millionaire. Which also meant he probably didn't depend on a scholarship or loans for college. And he could _afford_ to be an art student. How lucky for him.

Friday reared it's ugly head and Hayner wasn't entirely thrilled with the idea of bussing downtown alone. He decided to use it as an opportunity to visually explore the ritzy part of downtown that he hadn't had a chance to visit yet. The central part of his hometown back east had nothing compared to the tall skyscrapers and neon lights of this city.

Although it was a little early for the clubs to be packed, there were still gorgeous girls running down the sidewalks in deathtrap stilettos wearing nothing but sequins and hairspray. It was a lot different from the nightlife in Twilight Town, which generally consisted of… Hayner had to think for a moment. Cow tipping? Twilight Town seemed like universes away as the bus lunged to a halt in front of a busy intersection.

Most of the travelers, college students like Hayner, got off at this stop and Hayner followed suit. According to Sora's instructions, the restaurant was two blocks down the perpendicular street. Hayner almost missed the building because it was so huge and so lit up that there was _no way_ that his friends expected him to possibly get inside. There was even a bouncer and a meandering line of club goers on dates waiting to get something in their stomachs before they filled it with tequila. Hayner approached warily.

"It's like an hour wait," a guy told his girlfriend.

"They're supposed to be the best," she mumbled.

"The bar is famous for-"

"I heard that Balthier likes-"

"They said there's a dress code-"

Hayner continued down the line, feeling more anxious the closer he got to the bouncer. It was like everything he heard about from TV and movies, but he wasn't prepared at all. He reached the impossibly huge, balding man carefully.

"Name?"

"Uh. H-Hay-_Hayner_ Marshall."

He mentally threw his lifeless body of a cliff for stuttering. The bouncer looked down at a clipboard with some names on it. Oh, this was just _typical_. His goateed mouth pulled back in a half-grimace, but his eyes were at least apologetic.

"It's not on here. Are you with a party?"

That's right, Riku was fabulously wealthy. He probably only had to speak his name and the whole world would grovel at his feet. "Riku…" he drawled off and the bouncer looked at his expectantly. Hayner could feel the color visibly paling from his face because he _no idea_ what any of his new friend's full names were. He tried to think back to that one time he saw Riku's art on display in the Business Center lobby. "Oh, jeez, it was Riku… Starts with a K… Kuro…gane? I know him from school. Kuromata? Kuroyama?"

The bouncer rolled his eyes and gestured behind him. "You're good."

Normally Hayner would spend a good five minutes discussing with the bouncer what exactly he meant by "good," but on this one rare occasion he decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth and went inside.

The restaurant was spacious. The first thing in sight was a large, empty space – a dance floor – with a lit-up bar on the opposite end. Although nobody was dancing yet, there were at least ten people sitting and chatting at the barstools. There was a spot against the wall in the back that looked like a small stage for live music or a DJ. Hayner looked up and saw upstairs balcony seating surrounding the dance area, which was probably where the velvet rope section was. Surrounding the dance floor at ground level were lots of dinner tables and chairs, each and every one occupied.

Before he could venture too far into the sitting area, a hostess with a big grin intervened. "Can I help you?"

"Uh- Yes! I'm looking for my friends?"

"Name?"

She was probably asking for the reservation name. "Riku…" Hayner bit the inside of his cheek when he remembered he _still_ didn't know his last name. The hostess didn't seem to mind as she turned around quickly and led Hayner to a booth by the windows. Sora, Riku, and Kairi were all there, each with a wine glass in their hands.

"Hayner!" they called out at once, like Norm from _Cheers_. Hayner grinned crookedly and look the empty seat next to Kairi.

"We saw you walk up the sidewalk and talk to the bouncer," she giggled, taking the tiniest sip from her glass.

"Have anything interesting to say?" Riku asked from across him. His glass was mostly full, but judging from the bottle sitting in an ice bucket stand beside him it probably wasn't his first. "He usually doesn't. Here." Riku reached for the bottle and poured Hayner a small bit. Hayner looked at him expectantly, and Riku just raised a brow. He assumed that he was supposed to have just a taste, then?

"I don't wanna get preachy, but Riku acts high-and-mighty around wine. His brother owns a vineyard," Kairi said. Of course his brother does, Hayner thought. Someone in his family probably owned a ranch and Riku would probably get preachy about proper horse riding techniques, too. Now Hayner was picturing Riku getting a pony for Christmas. Kairi brought up her glass to show as an example. "Sora said you don't usually drink." Did he say that? Hayner gave a look towards Sora, who only shrugged while sipping his glass.

"First, you wanna look at the color. It tells you a little bit about what's in the wine and how heavy it is." Hayner held up his glass and looked at the color. It was a fairly deep maroon color, crystal clear. "This is the wine-douchebag part. You swirl your glass and this gets the aroma out, so you can sniff it and get the gist about what ingredients they used."

Hayner swirled his glass for a few seconds before awkwardly lowering his neck to bring his face to the brim and sniffing. It smelled like what he imagined wine to smell like. Kind of fruity, but with the acidic stench of alcohol. Hayner wasn't sure if he wanted to drink it or use it to clean countertops. Maybe it was just really obvious to him because he wasn't used to it yet.

"When you take your first sip, you let it roll around on your tongue and get a sense of the flavor. You're supposed to take the time thinking about what tastes you feel, but mostly I spend it deciding if I want to finish it or spit it back in the cup. After you swallow you think of the aftertaste and how it all melded together. A good wine can change your life. The worst a bad wine can do is get you drunk. Either way, you win."

"Or you can be like me and chug it," Sora said, finishing half a glass and slamming it on the table. The brunet just smiled at Riku's peeved response.

"Another glass?" Riku asked, dripping with sarcasm. Sora smirked and held up his glass. "You're incorrigible." Riku started pouring Sora more, and Hayner swore he saw Sora wink.

"Sora can hold his alcohol," Kairi explained.

"I get it from my great-great grandmother on my dad's side. German," he explained. Hayner thought it probably had more to do with Sora drinking heavily since high school and building a tolerance to it.

"See anybody famous yet?" Hayner asked.

Sora pouted. "_No._ But the night's still young, so you never know. The music doesn't start for another hour and then the famous people usually crawl out of their shells around midnight."

The sun had barely set. "Why on earth are we here so early, then?" Hayner cried out. He rushed out of his seminar class to get here. His TA was giving him the stink eye when he started to pack up while she was still talking.

"Dessert," the three of them answered at once. As if on cue, a waitress came by with four plates of cheesecake with strawberry drizzle glaze and chips of broken chocolate stabbed near the crust. Forget dessert, this was a work of freaking _art._ Hayner almost didn't want to eat it. Almost.

"This place is famous for its desserts, I told you," Sora reminded. What Sora did or didn't tell him was irrelevant as soon as Hayner took his first bite. Imagine that feeling in your gut when you're watching the most beautiful sunset on a mountaintop miles away from city life and the stars come out, more stars than you ever thought possible, and it would all be a spit of tar compared to this cheesecake.

"I just wanna-" Hayner stuttered.

"Mhmm," Kairi hummed, fork still in her mouth.

"I just can't-"

"I know," Sora said.

"I physically _can't_-"

"_We know,_" Riku said.

"This is amazing. We had cheesecake at Twilight Town but to get to it you had to go to a Cheesecake Factory."

Riku scrunched his nose. "My brother's a chef. He helped with the menu."

"He owns a vineyard and can cook?"

"Different brother," Riku replied, "but they co-own the restaurant."

"So how many-"

"Kadaj, Loz, and Yaz, brothers."

"Four boys? Your mom must've had fun."

Kairi jammed her elbow into his bony ribs and Hayner let out a silent scream.

"Died," Riku answered flatly. "Cancer. Two years ago."

Everyone on the table was silent for a moment. Riku rubbed his fingertips in small circles around the rim of his wine glass. "Well…" Hayner mumbled, "I'm sure she had a blast."

Sora was the first to break out with a giggled, and that made Riku smile and take another bite of his cake. "Yeah, I like to think she did," Riku said.

"So, Yaz is the guy who's in charge of wine," Sora said, trying to move the subject along.

"Yaz. Like, the birth control?" Hayner watched a lot of daytime TV during school breaks, and even though the pill wasn't a direct concern of his, there were a lot of cheap commercials about the health hazards of the product during syndicated reruns of 90s sitcoms.

"Worse, like Yazoo the kazoo," Sora laughed. "It's a family name."

"My great-great-_great-_grandfather Theodore Yazoo von Ronsenburg," Riku mumbled, shaking his head, "and… the list goes on from there. The least I can say is that I'm glad it's not me." He capped off the moment with another drink from his glass.

"And Loz is the guy that owns the restaurant part," Sora added.

Kairi nodded. "And Kadaj."

"The drama queen," Riku growled into his glass.

She glanced at him and chuckled. "_Chyeah_. He owns the club part."

"So this is like a family business, huh?" Hayner asked, turning to Riku. "What about you, then? Are you gonna join in at some point?"

"I already am."

"How's that?"

"Eating, drinking, and listening."

Hayner paused. "You're gonna have to elaborate."

Riku held up his hand and lifted a finger for all three of his points. "I eat the food and tell Loz what sucks. I drink the wine and tell Yaz what's awful. I listen to the music and tell Kadaj what's unbearable."

"And that's it?" Hayner asked, not really believing that Riku's taste could speak for an entire restaurant and club.

"That's enough," Riku said, cocking a brow. "And it seems to be doing well for them so far."

Point. It was like the club didn't have a line down the street waiting to get in, and that was just for dinner. Hayner could only guess what the place was like after the club scene kicked in. Sora reached across the table for the wine and poured what was left into his glass.

"So are we sticking around for clubbing? I've never clubbed before. How does one club?" Hayner glanced over to Kairi. There were a couple of girls from high school, like Selphie and her friends, that talked about clubbing and going out. It usually required wearing tight dresses and lots of makeup like the girls did on television, right? Kairi wasn't wearing a dress and her makeup wasn't any different than how she wore on days where she didn't have eight AM lectures.

"We can stick around if you want," Kairi said with a shrug, looking to Sora and Riku for consensus. "I've got nothing going on."

"I'm down," Sora said. For the love of God, his glass was already empty.

Riku smirked. "Well, if we're in it for the long haul we may as well settle in." He turned towards the restaurant and made eye contact with their waitress. She immediately nodded and was by their table in an instant. "Hey Yuna. We're ready for round two when you are." She grinned and took the empty wine bottle away from the table, returning across the seating area to the bar.

"More wine?" Hayner chuckled.

"More whiskey," Sora replied.

Hayner's eyes almost bugged out of his skull. "What? But how-" He lowered his voice to be safe. "But we're only like _eighteen_." He turned questioningly to Kairi and Sora. "Eighteen? _Seventeen?_" He wasn't sure, but he was fairly certain in the past few weeks they'd known each other a birthday hadn't happened yet.

"Relax," Kairi said. "You're with friends. Feel free to drink, we won't judge you and we'll take care of you."

"Yeah, but- _whiskey_. What about- what about that rhyme? Wine before liquor, never sicker?" Hayner was hating himself for stuttering, especially since Riku was looking at him like an idiot.

"That rhyme's only made by alcoholics who hide their hangovers over excuses."

"What next? Cigars?"

Riku paused. "I know you're joking, but…"

"Don't."

"I mean, if you're _curious_, they do sell them here. I'm sure we could find one for you to sample. Although I wouldn't recommend it, they're gross."

Their waitress returned to the table with a tray with four uniquely different drinks. Without a word she placed one in front of everyone. "Enjoy, guys!"

"Thanks, Yuna!" Sora, Riku, and Kairi all said in unison, like this was something they had practiced. Hayner laughed hesitantly and looked at everyone's drinks. Sora's was something orange in a tumbler. Riku's was also in a tumbler, and Hayner would have thought it was plain water if it weren't for the olives resting on a toothpick inside. Kairi's was a martini glass filled something purple. Hayner gulped down his nervous spit as he looked down at his glass. It was a slightly larger glass with a deep maroon drink inside, but it certainly wasn't wine since there was a wedge of lime sliced and resting on the edge of the glass. Did he dare drink it? He almost had a heart attack the prospect of wine, and now this. He wasn't acting very cool in front of his new friends. He looked up at them to see what they thought.

To his surprise, all of them were looking at him. "…You don't have to drink it if you don't want to," Kairi said.

"Yeah, the last person I wanna be is someone's pusher man," Sora joked.

"Screw that, man. You're the one who invited me here," Hayner scorned, but none of them took any shame from it. He turned his glare back to his drink. "What the hell is this, anyway?"

"_That_ is a Cape Codder," Riku answered, meaning Cape Cod, but sounding vaguely New English and making Hayner feel nostalgic for home. "A perfectly good beginner's drink. This is cranberry juice mixed with grape distilled vodka to lessen the tummy ache." Hayner had heard of the drink before, but he never really paid attention. He took a sip from the straw.

"It's not bad. I mean- it's _juice_, but… It doesn't taste alcoholic."

"That's how you know it's good alcohol," Sora replied. Although Hayner decided that it was probably because he still didn't really know what alcohol tasted like, but he wasn't about to tell them that. Since when did he give into peer pressure? Hayner sighed, letting his eyes drift across the restaurant as he thought about his friends back home. If Olette found out he was drinking she would probably freak out. But at the same time he felt mature. Here he was at a nice restaurant, eating and drinking like an adult, and with his friends without a parent in sight. This wasn't like the parties back at home, hidden in the basement of someone's parent's house.

Hayner noticed from across the room that the deejay was setting up on the stage against the wall of the dance floor. Soon the club atmosphere would be in full swing. He started sipping a bit more from his straw and wondered what would happen if he got a little drunk. It could be just the liquid encouragement he needed to possibly dance tonight. He'd never danced before. This was all so exciting!

"Hooooold up there, skippy," Sora said, reaching across the table and taking Hayner's glass out of his hand and placing it on the table. "The name of the game is Pace Yourself not Wreck Yourself.

"I just noticed the music's being set up," Hayner nodded towards the deejay. "Does that mean the dancing starts soon?"

"Soon enough," Riku answered. A quick grin stretched across his face. "Why? Wanna dance?"

"I never have before," Hayner replied with a shrug. "Tonight seems like a night of firsts. It could be fun." The more he thought about it the more courageous he became. Being around a bunch of people, maybe tonight was the night some starlet and her entourage would be on the prowl for unassuming nerdy guys to grind up on. He picked up his drink and took another long sip.

"I _do_ have on my dancing shoes," Kairi commented, her feet doing a little jig under the table.

The decision was unanimous. They finished their drinks and continued chatting until the music started. It was slow at first, just building up the atmosphere, but soon it became so loud that they couldn't shout over it anymore. Then the lights dimmed and more people started wandering their way to the dance floor.

"I saw this set before," Riku said, because of course he had. Hayner wouldn't be surprised of the deejay held personal concerts just for Riku in his apartment to get the teen's approval before being allowed to perform in public. "It's about to blow up. We need to get out there." He slid out of the booth, followed closely by Sora. The two were almost lost in the crowd before Hayner stood up. He paused a moment waiting for Kairi to situated herself. What she considered dancing shoes Hayner always thought as walking hazards. She strapped her purse across her shoulder and dashed past him.

"C'mon!" she said excitedly. "When Riku says it's good you know it's gonna be _good!"_

Hayner followed close behind. There was a dip in the music where everything was silent except for the noise from the crowd. Everything smelled like smoke until Hayner realized there were several fog machines fanning down the ceilings. Then the laser show started. That's when the bass became so loud Hayner wasn't sure he'd be able to hear his eight-AM lecture next Monday.

At first things were relatively tame. The group danced in a small circle, no fancy tricks. Hayner was sure he was doing a lame job, but he realized none of the others were really looking at him or judging him, and they only encouraged him the more he let loose. There was a guy standing nearby. Tall, light hair, tanned skin, but he must have been Kairi's type because she started dancing with him immediately, leaving the boys to themselves.

That's when things got weird. Well, not _weird,_ Hayner would later correct himself, but different. Pleasantly different. At some point he noticed Riku and Sora were holding hands. At first he was shocked. He found himself interrupting his own dancing and constantly looking down to make sure- Yup. They were definitely holding hands.

It made sense, he guessed, but he wondered why they never said anything. They'd been friends for a while, and maybe there was an undercurrent of attraction Hayner noticed between the two, but it seemed odd that between the two of them that nobody ever said anything. Especially someone as tact and honest as Sora or as blasé as Riku wouldn't come out and say, "Oh, yeah, and by the way we're dating," or, "Don't freak out or anything but we're gay."

Hayner would never freak out, he thought to himself as he danced alone. Although his school district wasn't known for being the most accepting towards gay kids, it wasn't exactly open about _any_ form of sexual exploration. Like that one time Selphie got detention for handing out free condoms and safe sex pamphlets in the cafeteria. But like Hayner was still reassuring himself, he had no problem with gay people. But he felt bad that he kept _looking_ at Sora and Riku. They were rubbing their arms and shoulders together. It was like he was eavesdropping on a private moment around at least a hundred people. He felt like he had to get out of there before things became too intimate.

The crowds were packed tight, but he managed to find some openings and, without being stopped by anybody, made it outside the dance floor. Right in front of him was the bar, and it felt like the growing crowds from the dance floor were almost pushing him towards an empty stool. Now that he had a moment to sit down, he realized how dizzy he was. This must be what it felt like to get drunk.

There was also a considerable amount of sweat on his forehead. When he swiped the back of his hand across to flick it away, he ended up smearing some of it into his eyes. For a brief moment he could barely see as his eyes watered up. He glanced up for a moment and noticed someone standing across from him, a bartender. Male, tall, blond.

"Sorry, do you have a napkin?" He was looking down now and noticed the familiar white square shape of a cocktail napkin and dabbed his eyes with it. Well, that wasn't embarrassing. He looked up to tell the bartender thanks, but instead there was a much shorter, dark haired girl in his place. "I… um…"

"What'll you have?"

It was still new to Hayner that he was in a world where bartenders actually acknowledged his existence. He'd never ordered from a bar before. He briefly looked up and down the long oak tabletop and didn't notice a menu. There also weren't any tall and blond bartenders working behind the counter, male or otherwise. Maybe his sweaty eyes were playing tricks on him.

He tried to think back to think about all those movies he saw where there was a bar scene. There was a drink that seemed easy enough to remember. It sounded like a drink from New York. Or was it Georgia? "A… Long Island iced tea?" She cocked a brow, and for a moment he saw her glance down at his hands. She was looking for giant X's on the back of his hands. The whole situation screamed _"HEY. HEY THIS KID IS ONLY EIGHTEEN HE DOESN'T KNOW ANY OTHER DRINKS HAHAHA."_

Before he had a chance to think too much about it there was a glass sitting in front of him. "Cash or charge?" she asked.

"Uh…" Movies. This happened all the time in the movies. What did they call it? "I have a tab." A moment passed and the bartender raised her brow again. "…Under Riku." Without another word the bartender had whisked herself away to the opposite end of the bar. He took one sip and nearly balked. If his last drink didn't taste like it had alcohol, then this is what alcohol tasted like. It was like the entire inside of his mouth was disinfected now.

Luckily, there was a straw. He placed the end near the back of his tongue and took a longer sip. The drink was a lot better when he couldn't taste it. One, two, three, four- Four sips and the drink was gone? All that dumb ice took up too much space in his glass. He twirled in his barstool so he faced the rabid dancing going on behind him. It was almost impossible to tell this was the same posh restaurant he started his evening in.

He turned back around to order another drink, but noticed there was already one waiting for him. Where did it come from? None of the bartenders were anywhere near his end. Maybe it was a gift from someone? People order drinks for other people all the time a snazzy clubs, right? The dim lights made it difficult to see people far away, but most of the bar looked like a war zone of people wanting attention for the busy bartenders. Why were they so understaffed?

Whatever. Free drink. Hayner picked it up, took a big swig, and almost died. This wasn't alcohol! This was… _water!_ Who on earth gave him water? Ugh. Well, if Riku were here he'd probably give some sage advice about drinking water when you get sloshed, or some other hippy science tips. He drank the water.

His work was done there and it was time to move on, possibly back to the dance floor before the growing crowd around the bar suffocated him. By some circumstance of fate or timing, he ran into some dude's back and ricocheted off a dancing girl, and the pain from getting stabbed in the ribs by a different girl's elbow mid-swing made him tumble backwards into the small dancing circle of Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

"He's back!" Sora said happily. The three of them raised a glass in celebration. They were holding test-tube looking glasses with odd colored drinks that glowed under the black lights hanging from the ceilings. Hayner had no idea where those came from, but it didn't seem to matter. Kairi handed him one of the drinks she was holding.

"Just in time. I was about to have yours," she said loudly over the music. Hayner didn't even ask as he took the test tube and drank the strange glowing blue drink. It didn't taste very good. Not bad, but not great. It definitely had that mouth-sanitizing quality that he tasted earlier.

A few moments later Hayner realized he wasn't holding the glass anymore, but he wasn't sure what happened to it. Someone took it from him or he dropped it. It didn't matter because now they were dancing, laughing hysterically at dumb things, and trying to convince Kairi to make a song recommendation to the deejay. There was another round of shots and things started to fall apart after that.

Hayner had two memories of how the night ended. At some point they had made it out of the bar because he was vomiting in an alley by a dumpster and Sora was rubbing his back. The next was singing loudly to music in a cab. Hayner woke up the next morning in his dorm room. The radio was on a Spanish morning talk show and his blinds were pulled all the way up letting in the morning sun.

He tried to recollect his memories as he grappled for his phone. It wasn't by the radio, it wasn't on his desk. Hayner panicked when he realized it wasn't in any of the usual places. Somewhere out there in the gutters of downtown was his cell phone and his mom was going to _kill_ him if she found out he lost it. He sat up in bed and realized he was still wearing last night's clothes, and in his own back pocket were his wallet and cell.

"Thank God," he croaked, pulling it out and checking the time. It was six-fifty Saturday morning and there was a missed text from Riku that read, _"We'll take better care of you next time."_

Hayner stared down at the message in anger. He tried to tell himself there wasn't gonna _be_ a 'next time,' but who was he kidding? The bright light from the sun was starting to annoy him. When he stood to close the blinds, his stomach made a sound that surely no human stomach had ever made before, but the command it gargled was universal: Bathroom. _Now._

He spent the next fourty-five minutes in a passionate embrace with the third toilet stall in the bathroom commons. Maybe this was all a blessing in disguise because nobody in their right mind could possibly be awake right now. The cell in his back pocket alerted that, no, there was definitely someone else awake right now.

It was a text from Sora. _"Grease is good for hangovers. Meet at the cafeteria in 20?"_

How could Sora _possibly_ know that Hayner was awake? Was it normal to only get four hours of sleep after drinking? Hayner didn't know whether to feel insulted or abused. Riku promised he would be okay yesterday, but Hayner didn't even remember how he got home. What if he lost his wallet or his phone? What if he got beat up? He was only eighteen and was walking around campus blacked out. He could have gotten in serious trouble.

He texted back, _"Sure alright." _There was nothing at that moment that seemed better than bacon and sausage. He was technically already dressed, but he went back into his dorm and changed shirts anyway. The downstairs cafeteria was practically vacated except for a few students in exercise gear eating power breakfasts. Hayner usually never left his dorm until past noon on the weekends so this was relatively new to him.

Immediately, at a round table in the middle of the room, he spotted Sora, Riku, and Kairi hunched over plates of the types of greasy breakfast foods only college campuses could supply. Riku was even wearing sunglasses. Hayner took pleasure in the fact that he wasn't the only one hurting this morning.

"Good morning starshines," Hayner said, stopping by the table.

Kairi groaned. "The earth says hello," she replied with a weak wave.

For some reason misery loves company. Seeing everyone in pain was making Hayner feel particularly chipper. "Well, I'm gonna go through the line. Can I get you guys anything?"

"A new brain?" Sora asked.

"I'll see what I can do."

Since it wasn't a school day and it was so early in the morning there weren't really any lines, just a small little selection of pig meats and a waffle maker. Hayner returned to the table with two sausage biscuits cobbled together with what was available.

"Well?" Sora asked upon his return.

"Fresh outta brains," Hayner replied. "Plenty of sausage links, though." Sora growled and ate a forkful of scrambled eggs. Kairi continued to pick aimlessly at her waffles while Riku played with his phone in silence.

"So does anybody have memories of what happened last night?" Hayner asked. He noticed Riku glancing at him from above his sunglasses. This was probably the first time he looked worried. "Uh… because I don't remember much of _anything_ after that Long Island."

"I don't even wanna know," Kairi mumbled. "I was grinding up on some guy. Ugh. I think he wanted my number? I didn't, did I?"

"Nah, we wouldn't let you do that," Sora reassured, although Hayner wasn't sure how he could promise that. Everybody seemed too wasted.

"I did see you go to the bar," Riku said. "You got another drink?"

"I guess. Yeah, I know I did. Someone gave me water."

"_Water._ Why didn't we drink more water," Kairi whimpered.

Riku was swiping his finger across his phone. "Whatcha lookin' at?" Sora asked him.

"Hm. Took some pictures at some point, I guess."

Kairi perked up. "You did? Lemme see!" Her mood changed dramatically as she flipped through Riku's pictures. "Hey! There's one of the guys," she said, showing the phone to Hayner of the three of them trying to look tough but failing miserably. Sora was having a hard time choking down a smile. She flipped to the next picture, which was of her and Sora. "Oh, that's a cute one!"

She flipped through some more pictures. "I really need to learn the bartender's names better. Who's this one in the background?" She handed Riku his phone back and he squinted.

"That's Rikku, the blonde one."

"Fem-Riku!" Sora said happily. "She's like, the anti-Riku in every way. How _can't_ you remember her?"

Riku swiped through to another image. "Here's a picture of Hayner at the bar," he said, showing the picture to Hayner. It must have been from before the crowds swarmed because everything looked pretty vacant. The serious looking lady who made his drink was there. "That one goes by Paine. I think it's her last name." He flipped through the pictures a couple more times. "Oh, and that's the new guy. I forget his name. Something annoying, though."

Hayner paused. He didn't remember seeing a guy there last night. However it did seem like there was an extra person behind the counter that his drunken mind was having a difficult time keeping track of. "Y'know… Someone did give me a glass of water, but then they were gone. It wasn't the gothy or the perky ones, though."

"Then maybe it was New Guy," Riku said with a shrug. He showed Hayner the picture he was looking at. "Look familiar?"

The picture was blurry, but Hayner knew he was looking at the moment he saw him. Big build, short blond hair, strong chin. He had to try his best to not drop his sausage on the floor. "Seifer Almasy." His lips smirked when he said the name. He wanted to frown but he just couldn't.

Riku nodded. "_That's_ what is was. I told you it was annoying. Sounds like _royalty._ You know him? A friend?"

Seifer was definitely not a friend, but Hayner wasn't about to explain his whole purpose for moving out west in the first place was to find the jerk that ruined his life. Now that he had made friends with Sora, Riku, and Kairi, revenge seemed more pointless. He actually liked this school even if it wasn't an Ivy League like where Pence and Olette ended up.

"He's a guy that went to my high school. A year older, though." He took Riku's phone and analyzed the picture a bit closer. It was too blurry to make out any finer details, though. "I heard he came out here to become a _model_ or something. Or maybe an actor? Which was crazy now that I think about it. I don't think that guy ever acted a day in his life."

"If he's really full of himself he would've thought the acting just came naturally," Kairi sighed, taking a few large gulps from her coffee. "Nobody from Destiny lives here, though. Think how weird it would be to randomly run into someone you used to know." She directed that last comment to Sora and Riku, who both barely shrugged.

"So do we have any plans for today?" Hayner asked. He figured it would be better to ask now than to be randomly woken up from a hungover hibernation by Sora.

The two boys grimaced in response. "Ugh, God no," Riku groaned.

"I'd rather die than go anywhere near that place again," Sora affirmed. Hayner assumed that meant it would be at least a week before they went back to the club. He didn't mind taking breaks between heavy partying, being a student and all. There was that part of him that felt somewhat dedicated to his studies. It would be a long trek towards graduation if he started senoritis now.

He scarfed down his breakfast rather quick while his friends still picked at theirs. "I'm gonna head back up to my room," he announced. "You guys let me know if there're any goings-on this weekend, okay?"

He got a grunt from the boys and a salute from Kairi. "Sure thing, goyim."

In his room, he looked at his phone and tried to remember the time difference from west coast to east coast. Back home was a good four hours ahead so Olette should be awake by now. The call was picked up after only one ring.

"_Yellow?"_

It definitely wasn't Olette. Hayner was only deterred for a moment. "Pence?"

"_Hey dude! What's goin' on?"_

"I don't even know where to start. Guess what I did last night." He started to settle in on his bed.

"_Dressed up in drag and did the hula?"_

"Close. So one of my new friends, Riku, is like this super rich kid and his brothers own this club downtown."

"_I'm listening."_

"And I got totally smashed, man."

"_Totally?"_

"I couldn't remember most of the trip home."

"_It's about time. So wait- what time is it there?"_

"Like eight. I woke up early feeling sick. Barfed up things I didn't even eat, felt better."

"_Dude, I'm eating lunch."_

"It was so insane, man. I drank fancy wine, and then like two drinks from the bar and _who knows_ how many shots."

"_Ugh. You know 'Wine before liquor never sicker,' right?"_

"Riku says that's an old wife's tale."

"_And if your new BFF for life Riku jumped off a bridge, would you?"_

"So anyway, I've got big news. Is Olette there? Put me on speaker."

"_Yeah, she's right here. One second."_

There was a moment Olette trying to explain to Pence how to turn on the speakerphone function on her cell. Before long he could hear her much more clearly. _"Hi Hayner!" _shesang_. "Sorry I didn't answer. We're eating pizza and my hands were too greasy."_ It was a well established fact that Pence was a freak of nature who ate pizza with a fork, leaving his hands grease-less. _"Pence tells me you have news?"_

"Yeah… I found Seifer." There was a brief silence on the other end that Hayner felt warranted further explanation. "I mean- I went to that club last night and there was this bartender. I didn't get a good look at him and I was kind of on my way to becoming drunk so the memory's a little blurry, but there was definitely a dude bartender there last night."

There was another short pause, followed Olette slowly chiming in, _"…Ahuh…"_

"I swear! Riku took pictures on his phone. It's kinda blurry but I _swear_ it's him!"

"_Gee, how many buff, blond, tan dudes can there –possibly- be on the west coast?"_ Pence asked dryly.

"Guys, I'm being serious!"

"_So even if it is him,"_ Olette said with a frown he could feel even with a nation separating them, _"now what? What's the next step?"_

"Uh… I guess go back and find him…"

"_And get your teeth knocked in? Talk about your feelings? Are you going into this expecting some sort of apology?"_

"No!" Hayner asserted. "Why? I'm the one that started the fight in the cafeteria. The most I can do is apologize to him."

"_Seriously?" _Pence asked.

"_That's some grown-up level shit there, Hayner,"_ Olette said. _"Like, at first you were a Squirtle, and then you leapfrogged over into Blastoise territory."_

"_I don't think- Wait, no, because Wartortle would be like those awkward years when they fought each other all the time. I think it's more like- Okay, so Hayner's experience at the club was like a Water Stone and he's a Shelder who trapped in a shell of his own hypocrisy and-"_

"_And then- What? He evolves into a Cloyster with a thicker shell and spikes? And, I might add, has the potential of being a Poison/Dark-"_

Hayner was about to hang up the phone. "Guys."

"_Do what you think is best, Hay. You're an adult now," _Pence said.

"_But be safe," _Olette added. _"I mean. Remember what he was capable of before. The dude's an adult now, too. He can spend all his time at the gym if he wants."_

Either Hayner was feeling very brave or very naïve, but he didn't think after what happened last night that Seifer would try to beat him up. "I'll be fine."

"_So do you have anything on the agenda today? What's the weather like over there?"_

"It's gorgeous outside, which of course means I'll be sticking my head under a pillow and trying not to puke again."

"_That's right,"_ Pence mused. _"I forget how little partying you did in high school. You'd never been drunk before, have you?"_

"And I never will again. I promise that."

"_You promise?"_

"I swear it. But really the more I talk the more I can feel breakfast coming up."

"_Ew! Dude, we're eating!"_

"I'll talk to you guys later."

He ended the call and sighed loudly. Seifer Almasy was going to be A Thing again. After over a year of being out of each other's lives completely, and years of awkward avoidance in high school, Seifer was back. Hayner tried to piece together what exactly happened at the club last night. Someone handed him water. Was it Seifer? But why would he care?

Hayner's giving-a-shit-about-Seifer muscle hadn't been flexed in a good few years and he was quickly finding himself worn out. Sleep called to him like a siren's song. He fell back into his bed and fell asleep, not even bothering to close the blinds to dampen the sunlight.

**oooOOOooo**

While Hayner was quickly learning that the huge lecture class he shared with Kairi was probably easy to skip, there were still little things that made him stay even though the red-headed delinquent was usually nowhere to be seen. It usually happened on days when class attendance seemed at an all-time low.

"Alright gang, take out a sheet of paper and a pen. Pop quiz time!" the professor announced happily from the front of the classrooms. The quizzes were never a challenge, just a means of taking attendance without having to call out each name individually. "Write down one thing you learned from today's lecture. Anything at all."

Hayner was used to this drill by now. He took out two sheets of paper, a blue pen, and a pencil. With the blue pen he wrote his name and something about RAM and on the other sheet he used the pencil to write Kairi's name in bubbly handwriting, along with a fact about memory installation. They were instructed to pass the papers in to their TA, which thankfully he and Kairi shared even though their discussion hours were at different times. The rush to get out of the auditorium to their next classes was so quick that he was able to sneak it Kairi's quiz sheet without anyone noticing.

He didn't have a class immediately following this one, but he had a good idea of where to find his friend. The Literature building was right next door to the Engineering building. While Kairi was naturally skilled in engineering, he found that she showed an obvious passion for written prose. It seemed like she was destined for a double major, that is if she could handle the pressure of so many classes.

The atrium for the department was a modern design. The college wasn't as old as some of the Ivy League schools that boasted libraries of Harry Potter proportions. There were several small cubicles for private studying, and sitting at one of them using her engineering textbook as a pillow was Kairi.

Hayner poked her a few times on the shoulder before she woke up with a snort. "We had another pop quiz in class today."

She looked over her shoulder and glared at him. "That's impossible. I'm studying for class right now. I skipped my first class today to get caught up."

"And you slept right through it. Do you need to go back to your dorm?"

Kairi had the look of a girl who had given up. "Well, I'm awake now. What's the point?' She flipped her textbook closed and stood. "The test is next Thursday, right? I still have plenty of time to study."

"We should get together sometime this weekend. C'mon, let's get lunch."

"Why do people even take naps anyway? The only thing they do is make you more exhausted." She pulled out her cell phone from her back pocket. "Looks like the guys are ahead of us. Got a text fifteen minutes ago from Sora saying to meet up at the cafeteria."

"I'm getting real sick of cafeteria food," Hayner groused.

"This is just month two," Kairi laughed. "You have a whole slew of things to get sick of before it's the food."

The cafeteria was on the opposite side of campus near the dorms. It was quite a trek to get there, and by the time they got their food Sora and Riku were already finished. "_There_ they are," Sora said.

"I know. We made it. I hardly believed we could, it was such a long journey," Hayner said dryly.

"And yet, here we are!" Kairi said, sitting down at the table and inhaling her chicken burger.

"There's actually a reason why we called you here," Riku said, pointedly looking at Hayner. The blond didn't remember being called. It was a text from Kairi that brought them over. Maybe Riku just knew they'd be together and that he'd eat lunch with them anyway.

"Oh! When's the wedding?" Kairi asked with her mouth full. She got a piercing glare from Riku and an awkward glance from Sora. Riku pointedly turned his attention back to Hayner and continued.

"Did you get the email I sent you?"

Hayner perked up a little. "No? I mean- when'd you send it?" He grabbed his phone and checked his email quickly.

"Earlier this morning."

It was a ZIP file. He'd have to wait until he was on his laptop to download it. The file name did catch his attention. " _ "

"…Ahuh. What's this?"

"That's the name of your friend, right? The new bartender at the club?"

"Yes?"

Their club excursion had been a couple weeks ago by this point. With mid-terms becoming a very real threat, Hayner hadn't had much time to even think about returning. Even Seifer was kicked down a few pegs on his list. He found out where he worked. The hard part was over.

"It turns out he _is_ trying to be an actor. Or a model, whatever," Riku said. "See? Seifer Almasy, white male, age nineteen."

"Where? …_How?_"

"I was at the restaurant last weekend and I was curious. I asked Kadaj, since the bars are part of his end of the restaurant, about the new recruit. He gave me his resume and I noticed he mentioned a casting agency. Not a really well known one, but they put their client's information out there for anybody who's looking to cast a small thing, like a modeling gig or a commercial."

"Why?"

"Because he's a friend of yours."

"He's _not_- I mean. We weren't exactly friends."

Riku frowned. "Sorry. I guess I misunderstood. Schools at Destiny Island are so small everybody sorta knows _everybody_, y'know?"

"So he's just some random dude you remember from high school?" Kairi asked.

"I mean… No, we knew each other. Full disclosure: he was kind of a bully. We both were."

Sora almost laughed. "_You?_ A bully?"

Hayner gave him a small half-smile before continuing. "No, it was a little complicated. We fought a lot in middle school, and in my freshman year of high school we got into this big fight. The school kind of nipped it in the bud and issued restraining orders for us while we were in school. They went so far as to organize our lunches and classes in a way that we had to cross paths as little as possible." Hayner could feel his face reddening. "God, it was so embarrassing. I was such a jackass."

"Well, hey, this is good news, then!" Sora said happily. "This is a chance to redeem yourself. You guys have spent over a year apart by now. You're ready for forgiveness, maybe he is too!"

"Maybe this is more of a forgive and _forget_ thing," Kairi added. "I dunno. It's been a while so maybe it's time to move on and put the past behind you guys."

"Noooo! C'mon, talk to him. Maybe he wants to apologize, too."

"Maybe he just wants to forget about it and leave ancient history where it belongs."

"Or maybe they could become best friends!"

"Or maybe he'll think Hayner's a crazy psycho stalker."

Kairi's last comment hit a little close to home. At that moment Riku decided to intervene. "Well, he has the information now. He can choose what he wants to do with it. It's no longer our concern." Yeah right. As if Riku suddenly learned how to facilitate someone else's personal boundaries and pigs took to the skies.

"So, do we have any plans for after mid-terms?" Kairi asked. "My last one is next Friday."

"My schedule's clear after next Wednesday," Riku said, glancing at Sora.

"I only have essays," Sora replied. The three of them looked at Hayner. Riku and Kairi were pretty good keeping their poker faces on, but Sora had a little smile and was wiggling his shoulders like he couldn't contain himself.

Hayner frowned. "You what they say about curiosi-"

"Then it's decided!" Riku exclaimed, holding up the spoon for his soup. "We'll go out for celebratory celebrations on Friday night at an undecided location that may or may not be the club Seifer Almasy works at. Are we agreed?"

"Aye."

"Aye!"

"Guys…"

"Majority rules," Riku said, knocking his spoon against the plastic tray his meal rested on like a gavel. After the decision was apparently made he started gathering his mess and getting ready to leave. "Now, you will excuse me, brilliance won't paint itself."

"Go get 'em, tiger," Kairi said with a wave.

Hayner looked back down at his phone still in his hands. Floating out there in cyberspace and in his inbox was a folder filled with publicity photos of his high school bully. He still wasn't looking forward to the aspect of meeting him again. "I dunno guys. Riku's kind of a meddler. I don't really like being meddled."

"But Riku's a really good meddler," Sora assured.

Kairi took a drink from her soda. "Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it. I don't think he'd do anything too far out of bounds."

"Until I try and walk home drunk again and get mugged and kidnapped and murdered."

"We weren't gonna let anything bad happen to you that night," Sora said lightheartedly, but Hayner wasn't entirely convinced. "Besides, you had fun. That's what we're gonna do! _Have fun._ Friday. Next Friday, it's gonna be great."

The rest of the meal went by quick when Kairi realized she was about to miss another class if she didn't book it. Sora had a meeting with the college's writing department to help him edit a draft of one of his papers that he had to get to. Hayner's next class wasn't until the evening, so usually the gaping hole in the middle of his day was spent taking a nap in his dorm. However with mid-terms next week it probably wouldn't kill him to crack open a book.

Hayner went back upstairs to his room and threw his textbooks in his book bag on the floor and immediately cracked open his laptop. His fingertips tripped over themselves typing in his email password. At the top of the list was that email for Riku, with the blazing paperclip-shaped beacon that signaled an attachment.

Other than the title _"I found this for you,"_ there wasn't any text from Riku in the email, just the attachment. He downloaded the ZIP file and unarchived it as quickly as it could. Inside the folder was a PDF document. He held his breath as the images opened.

There was a cover letter with some basic information, like how to contact the casting agency, and then- it was Seifer.

A big close-up of Seifer's face and he was _smiling_. It didn't look smug or condescending at all. Hayner smirked and skipped to the next image. It was a more traditional four-panel image with each photograph using a different lighting to convey a different mood. Last, there was a full-body image of Seifer standing to give an idea of his height and body type.

It was weird, because Seifer was always a bully in Hayner's eyes and he never really saw him as anything different, but these publicity shots were something else. They were trying to sell Hayner the _idea_ of Seifer. This wasn't "Seifer the guy who punched me once in middle school," this was "Seifer the boy next door who dates the main character of a Disney Channel original movie." They made him look… charming.

Which was totally ridiculous. Although it probably helped that Seifer grew his hair out a little bit and stopped slicking it back with gel. And he wasn't wearing that dumb trench coat that he wore all the time even in the summer like some kind of psychotic mass murderer. And the photos were obviously retouched.

They were also in high resolution. He zoomed in on his face. Closer, closer. They were definitedly retouched, because you couldn't see the scar on his nose from when the glass cut him during their big fight. In a way Hayner was disappointed. The scar was erased along with any memories of his old life that Seifer left behind. Hayner was supposed to be doing the same thing. He was supposed to be starting a new life in California, but some things were hard to let go.

He closed the images from his laptop and snapped it shut, choosing to pick up his notebooks so he could begin studying for his midterms. Forcing Seifer out of his mind was proving to be just as difficult as it was when he was a child.

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_Thanks for reading!_


	3. He's A Tramp

_Hey guys! I'm trying to keep my updates every two weeks-ish. I'm want to keep it so that I have most, if not all, of the next chapter finished before I post a new one. So sometimes this causes delays. But seriously, I'm glad that you guys are enjoying this so much! I hope this chapter doesn't come off as too after-school-special, but stuff happens in college, y'know?_

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**Hello Old Friend**

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"Do you have an ID?"

Hayner looked up from his meal at Riku. Very few times does that question lead somewhere good. "Uh. Yeah. I mean- It's a driver's license from my hometown. I had to leave my truck at home because-"

"That's cool, whatever. Just make sure you bring it with you tonight."

"Why? They didn't card me at the last place…"

"Because the last place was owned by my brothers and the doorman was told to let you in. I don't have that kinda power at some of the other places we're going to."

Hayner carefully stuffed his mouth full with waffles. "And where exactly are you taking us?" he asked skeptically between chews.

"Just some fun spots my brothers told me about downtown. They're mostly eighteen and up so we need proof that we're at least that. I'll handle the rest. You're eighteen, right?"

"Wh- _Yes._"

"And your card's not expired?"

"No."

"Great! Glad we had this talk." Riku wasn't even eating anything. Hayner snuck downstairs for a quick breakfast before hitting the gym. He was surprised the second-year was even up that early on a Friday. Although he noticed the dark look around Riku's eyes and figured the boy probably hadn't slept yet. _Art majors._

Riku stood and readjusted his bag on his shoulder. "Okay. We're meeting at the bus stop at nine. That work for you?"

Hayner sighed and made a mental note to take a nap sometime today. "Yeah. Should be great."

Without another world, Riku nodded and left the cafeteria. Hayner went about the rest of his day as planned, and at nine o'clock on the dot he met the others at the bus stop. Riku and Sora were both dressed relatively same as always, except maybe taking better care in their shirt selection. Kairi wore a purple party dress and yellow heels with a matching purse.

Sora grinned widely. "We were talking about all the clubs we're going to go to tonight. Gonna get _smashed_."

"Fun," Hayner replied. He could see the bus arriving further down the street. "I don't know how heavy I wanna take it tonight, guys. Last time was kinda gruesome."

"You don't _have_ to drink," Kairi said. "Last time was just a primer. Everyone should drink at least a little before they're twenty-one. Now you've gauged your weakness and won't be jumping in blind anymore." Sound, if not flawed, logic. The bus arrived and they all shuffled on. Sora and Kairi sat beside each other facing the front of the bus while Hayner and Riku sat perpendicular facing a window.

"The first place we're going to is called _Olympia_," Riku said with flourish. "They're okay. After that there's this industrial place Sora wants to check out called Monstro."

"There's a rumor that Ragnarok will be playing there tonight," Sora said.

"I have no idea what that is," Hayner replied, assuming Ragnarok was a band or something.

"They suck," Kairi answered. "But Olympia's actually pretty good. Really, like, Ancient-Greek royalty themed. They've got these clouds painted on the ceilings with golden cages that hired dancers dance in."

"…Like go-go dancers?" Hayner asked. His parents left a lasting impression when they showed him old footage from a 60s dance show his mom used to watch when she was a kid. He wondered if these cage dancers would have peace signs painted on their thighs. "That doesn't sound very Greek."

"You know, after enough tequila, it doesn't really matter after a while," Kairi sighed.

Riku reached over his shoulder and pulled the cord to bring the bus to a close. "Okay. So a few rules before we go to the club. Have your IDs ready, don't be brash, make eye contact, don't smile too much, don't frown, make small talk, don't stutter, don't talk too much." The club was right beside their stop. It was a large, simple concrete building with metal Greek-looking letters that read _Olympia_ with excellent kerning across the front. "Don't breathe too much, for the love of _God_ don't breathe too little… Okay, IDs out."

Like synchronized swimmers, the four of them got out their IDs. Riku was first in line. The bouncer was standing by the door behind a podium. "Hand." Riku held up his left hand and the bouncer marked it with a Sharpie X and moved onto Kairi, then Sora. Hayner wasn't aware that some sort of marking-of-the-hands ritual was going to happen, but he liked to think that he reacted with the grace and refinement Riku expected of him.

The others waited by the door before going in. Once Hayner got over the cold, squishy feeling of soggy felt-tips on skin, he followed them inside. The music was crushing. He had to try his best to make a good impression and not wince, but seriously who listens to music that loud? He couldn't remember if the music was the same during his last experience or if he was just too drunk to remember, or care.

It occurred to him that a small huddle was forming without him. Riku spoke loudly over the bass. "Bathroom!" he shouted loudly. Kairi nodded and the four of them walked towards the back where the restrooms were tucked away. Hayner wasn't exactly used to going to the restroom with the guys. He thought that was a girl-thing. And besides he used the restroom before he left for the bus.

It didn't seem to matter much. He was kind of surprised when Kairi followed Riku and Sora into the men's restroom. Hayner looked around wildly as he trailed behind them. None of the men, there were only three, outside of the stalls seemed to notice. It was when Riku appeared to be leading them into the last stall, the oversized handicap one, that Hayner accidentally made eye contact through a mirror with one of the guys at a urinal. He couldn't imagine how salacious it was with three boys and a girl walking into a bathroom stall together. The worst part was that the guy did a little up-nod and winked.

Hayner tried not to freak out too much and just followed his friends. He was okay with booze, but if they started bringing out heroin or cocaine he'd have to give them a good old fashioned Just Say No.

Riku was talking to Kairi now. "Do you have it?"

"Duh." She reached into her purse and pulled out… a small bottle of hand sanitizer.

Keeping up with the latest trends of recreational drug use wasn't something Hayner spent a lot of time doing as an engineering major. "What's this for?" he couldn't help but ask.

While there wasn't any music playing in the restroom, the thumping bass from outside was loud enough to mask the conversation. "Rubbing alcohol erases permanent marker from skin," Kairi answered. It suddenly became obvious as she squirted a small amount on the backs of Riku and Sora's left hand. Hayner watched as they rubbed and how the ink fell right off. Hayner and Kairi joined in. It took a couple of washes, but it came right out.

"That's amazing," Hayner commented. "But why are we doing this in here?"

"Last year we got caught when we were in town visiting Riku," Sora answered. "Apparently the club employed people dressed like civvies to make sure nothing terrible went down. One of them happened to be in the main part of the restroom where Riku and I were trying cleaning the x's off and he kicked us out. The second time we tried in a bathroom and these guys wouldn't leave us alone because they thought…"

Riku finished the discussion. "It was just easier with Kairi around. Nobody stops you if they think you're getting laid. Everyone's hands ready?" The four of them showed the back of their hands to the others to make sure the marker was all cleaned off. "Alright, let's transform and roll out."

They left the stall, and thankfully there wasn't anybody at the urinals or sinks as they breezed out the door. Riku volunteered to buy the first round since he looked, and technically _was_, Hayner supposed, the oldest. Sora took it upon himself to help and left Kairi and Hayner hanging out against the wall.

"Nice place," Hayner had to shout.

"I know, right?" she nearly screamed. "Sora really wanted to come here last time but Riku insisted on his brother's place."

"Yeah… So, hey, speaking of Riku and Sora…"

"Yeah?"

"Are they… y'know…"

Kairi looked confused. "Are they what?" She tilted her head slightly so her ear was closer to Hayner's mouth. The boy blushed and tried to think of an easy way out.

"How long have they been… friends?"

Kairi gave him a look. "Oh, uh… _Years_, I mean- Longer than they've known me. Since elementary school I guess. Why?"

"They seem really close."

"Well, don't you have your friends back east you're really close with?" she replied. Yeah, but he wouldn't exactly call his relationship with Olette, Pence, and Roxas as intimate as he'd seen Sora and Riku behave. He didn't hold hands or wink at Roxas. The little slugger would probably clobber him in a totally non-homophobic way if Hayner ever tried.

Kairi gave him another judging stare before standing in front of him and demanding his complete attention. "Okay. Real talk. Are you okay with them?"

"Yes. Yes! Totally!" Hayner answered nervously. She looked like she would punch him if he said the wrong thing. "I mean- is this a… I am okay with them. I am saying that right now. No matter what, they're my friends, right?"

Kairi sighed. "Right. So, Sora and Riku are going through some _things_."

"Ahuh?"

"And I've been trying to be a good friend and completely ignore what's going on but, yeah, right? You can cut the tension with a fucking cleaver sometimes." She shook her head and glanced over her shoulder to see if they were around. As if they'd be able to hear her, anyway.

Hayner nodded along. "I saw them holding hands last time!" he blurted.

Kairi's eyes went wide. "_I know!"_ she shouted. "What was up with that? Augh. I wanted to say something but it never came up. Sora's _really_ good at dodging the subject. And Riku hardly talks at all."

"So you think they, what? Kissed? Hooked up?"

She shook her head. "Nothing that drastic. I'm thinking more like 'somebody confessed and the other doesn't know how to respond' kinda territory."

Hayner was kind of stunned. His old high school had higher drama than this, but for some reason he was hooked on every passing glance the two boys shared. "I bet it was Riku who confessed."

"Really? I was thinking Sora."

"You were thinking what?" Sora asked as he walked up suddenly, followed closely by Riku.

"Happy thoughts," Hayner answered. Kairi smiled and laughed gleefully, clapping her hands as Riku handed her a martini glass.

"Yay! You're the best." She gladly took her drink and went to town.

Hayner took his drink from Sora and gave his thanks to Riku. "So, do they just not card people in this town?"

Riku just shrugged. "They're supposed to. Without the Xs on the hand that just means we won't get pulled aside if we get caught drinking in the club. The bartender's supposed to ask for ID, but Riku sweet talks them."

If Hayner could think of any word to describe Riku, charming would not be one of them. "Shall we toast the night?" Riku asked, trying desperately to change the subject. Kairi held up her martini glass even though it was almost empty. The four of them raised their glasses and let them clink together.

Not a lot of time was spent analyzing the contents of whatever Riku bought for him. Hayner drank up quickly. Kairi said something about the music playing being her favorite song. To Hayner's surprise, and probably Sora's and Riku's too, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the throng of bodies on the dance floor.

"I don't-"

"I hate this song but Sora has no less than one hundred thirty seven play counts logged, not including covers and remixes." She wrapped her arms around Hayner's neck and pointed with her eyes towards Riku and Sora standing awkwardly with their drinks. "They can't hold out forever."

"Maybe this isn't such a hot idea. Playing Cupid isn't really my thing…" He had learned from many harsh lessons, including that one time when Olette declared she had a crush on the new handsome and immediately popular exchange student in the tenth grade. Rather, she didn't 'declare' so much as Roxas found a note she had written to one of her girlfriends in class. And by 'Roxas found a note she had written in class,' he meant he dug through her personal belongings looking for a pencil and found a note a friend had passed to her, but the two girls had remarkably similar handwriting, and Roxas got confused. Needless to say, they got their faces slashed off when Olette found out they had rigged a raffle drawing during the school festival to win a date with the new guy so that she would win. Despite her efforts to concede, Olette honored him with a date, and later confided in Hayner that she always secretly had a thing for Pence. It wasn't long before things led to their inevitable conclusion.

"We're not playing Cupid," Kairi insisted. "We're not even doing anything. We're just over here dancing."

Dancing. Right. Kairi was hardly moving and was using Hayner as a human shield so she could get a better look at what the two boys were up to. "Okay Harriet the Spy, I'm gonna go try and get us another round."

She lit up at the sound of that. "Okay! I'll be here!"

Hayner sighed and shimmied his way out of the crowd. He spared a glance at Sora and Riku, who were at least starting to talk to each other at this point. The bar was so insanely crowded that Hayner wanted to cry, but he promised Kairi drinks and soldiered on. A guy walked away with a bottle of bear and left an opening for a millisecond that Hayner snagged without hesitation. He dug into his wallet to pull out money as a flag to the bartenders to wave one down. Eventually he made eye contact and shouted his order, "Long Island and Cape Codder!" Within moments he had his drinks and handed over the cash, not waiting for change so it would be left as a tip.

On the way back he noticed Sora and Riku were gone. He returned to the dance floor for a moment and looked around. Kairi was nowhere to be seen. He wandered for a moment and declared it a lost cause. It would be best to leave before someone's elbow knocked him and a glass broke on the ground. He returned to the wall where Sora and Riku had been leaning and rested, taking a few sips from his Long Island. After a moment of scanning the crowds for any signs of his friends, he spotted Kairi dancing with some guy practically a mile away from where she said she'd be waiting. Hayner frowned and started drinking from her glass.

The longer Hayner stood there the more he was convinced he was having exactly _zero_ fun. It was almost excruciating. He just wanted someone to talk with. He wished Sora or Riku would come back, or that Kairi would stop macking on some dude and come back to hanging with him. Roxas, Pence, and Olette would have never stood him up like this.

"I said _hello!"_

Hayner snapped from boring holes into his glass and looked up. There was a guy talking to him. Nice features, pleasant smile, altogether pretty non-threatening, so hopefully not one of the undercover security guys coming to double-check his ID. "…Hi."

"Are you alone?"

Now Hayner was embarrassed. "Gah, uh- No, not exactly. I was here with some friends but they wandered off."

He grinned. "Aw, that sucks!"

Hayner laughed hesitantly. "I know. Never split up the party, right?" he chucked.

"What?" the guy shouted over the loud music.

"Um. Never mind."

The guy seemed to struggle to keep the conversation flowing. "I'm Kyle!"

"Hayner!" He stuck his hand out as a greeting. Kyle looked at it, gave a small smile, and shook his hand. Hayner felt like he'd done something wrong.

"That's an interesting name."

"Thanks! My parents were weird."

"Haha. Well, can I buy you a drink, Hayner?"

Why would some random stranger want to buy him a drink? Hayner began to shake his head. "Thanks, but I'm…"

"It looks like you're running on empty," Kyle said, pointing at the two glasses in his hands that were now completely dry. Hayner was already three drinks into the night and already his buzz was practically nonexistent. He decided he could use an extra drink, and Kyle seemed friendly enough.

"Okay, sure!"

"Great! What'll you have?"

Hayner wasn't sure if he wanted another Long Island. He was in the mood for something different, but he couldn't think of anything. "Surprise me!"

"That's my kinda guy!" Kyle said happily. "I'll be back in a moment, wait here!"

Hayner was going to show Kairi a thing or two by being polite and waiting for his new friend to return with the drinks. He scanned the dance floor again and still couldn't find any of his friends. Kyle was pretty easy to keep track of with a head of short, cropped dark hair that stood out amongst the others since he was taller. About five minutes later Kyle returned with their drinks.

"Sorry that took so long!" he shouted, handing Hayner his drink. It was something pale green and tasted like limes.

"Not at all! And thanks."

"Think nothing of it. So where are you from, Hayner?"

"Originally? A small coastal town on the east coast. I'm here for school."

"Well, you're a long way from home," Kyle commented, still smiling while Hayner took small sips from his drink. It was definitely a lot stronger than the Long Islands.

"It's not so bad. My friends help with the homesickness."

"You mean the ones that abandoned you?"

When he put it that way, it sounded so harsh. "Nah, they just have other things going on tonight."

"Like getting laid."

Hayner laughed. "Yeah, probably." He did one last purview of the dance floor for any signs of the gang. The flashing lights and the moving people suddenly had a profound effect on him, making him feel incredibly dizzy. Finally, it seemed like the alcohol was kicking in.

"Wanna dance?" Kyle asked.

In all honesty, dancing was probably the last thing on Hayner's mind right now. It was getting difficult to think. "Nah, man. I think I need to sit down."

"There's no sitting at clubs!" Kyle laughed. "C'mon, just one dance? As payment for the drink?"

The last thing Hayner remembered having a solid grasp on was the sound of his mother's voice telling him how rude he was for not returning the favor of Kyle buying him a drink with a simple dance. He was nodding, but laughing as Kyle took his hand and led him away. He just couldn't stop laughing.

Kyle had his hands on Hayner's waist, and that felt weird, but instead of caring Hayner was holding onto his shoulders to keep from falling whenever he tripped, which was happening a lot.

"You have a really cute face," Kyle said to him.

"Your _face_ has a cute… face." Hayner meant it to be a playful insult but instead it made him laugh so hard that he almost collapsed to the floor.

Kyle tried to help him to his feet. "Okay, I think somebody's had enough," he chuckled. People around them were laughing at Hayner's drunkenness. Kyle managed to help lead Hayner out of the crowd. With a huge breath of fresh air, Hayner suddenly wasn't feeling that good at all.

"I need- I need to sit down."

"Are you okay? Are you going to throw up?"

It wasn't hurting his stomach, but Hayner couldn't describe it. It was only getting worse. He felt like he was fighting it. If he could just sit down for one second…

"Hey, my car's nearby. I'll drive you home, okay?"

Hayner nodded. His basic instincts kicked in: He was safe, Kyle was taking him home.

At that point, Hayner blacked out.

And then Hayner woke up.

His head was spinning. He felt like he needed to throw up. Definitely throw up. His eyes cracked open and the lighting in this room was different from his dorm. He gave his eyes a second to adjust and… this definitely wasn't his dorm. It wasn't Kairi or Sora's rooms either. And he'd never been to Riku's apartment, but…

He glanced around, trying to look at the items in the room. It was fairly basic. A simple bed, queen sized, with soft, lived-in sheets. There weren't any posters, but there was a framed painting of a lake and large mountains. He could hear a sound behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder and saw a closed door that obviously led to a bathroom. Someone was showering.

Immediately Hayner tried to remember what happened last night. He got to the club with Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Kairi danced with him a second. There was general awkwardness between Sora and Riku. He was left alone for a while and… There was a guy.

Right by the bed was a small wastebasket. Hayner latched onto it and leaned his head over the side. He tried not to hyperventilate while he spewed into the basket.

"_Ohmygodohmygodohmygod."_

He wiped his mouth with his sleeve when he was done and- that was not his sleeve. This was not his shirt. He wasn't even wearing his own _fucking_ clothes. _Fuck._ He pulled back on the sheets and sighed in relief when he was still wearing his jeans and belt. Small miracles.

He didn't feel… _violated_. It was weird to think about. His body didn't feel different. What had happened? Was he in Riku's apartment? There were a couple other doors in the room, one obviously led to a closet and the other to the rest of the apartment. He wondered if should go exploring, but it felt futile. This obviously wasn't Riku's apartment. The heat from the shower was amplifying whatever body wash they were using and it smelled like some kind of broseph Axe cologne, a scent Sora or Riku wouldn't touch with a 90 foot pole.

He just had to get out of here. Run. Who knows who this psycho was, if it was even the guy he met at the bar. There was a window nearby. Maybe he could peek outside and get an idea of where he was. Slowly, Hayner snuck out of bed. When his feet hit the ground they landed on something. He looked down and saw his shirt he wore to the club, folded, next to his shoes, wallet, and cell phone.

He grabbed his wallet first. His ID, credit cards, cash, everything was still inside. He slipped it into his pocket and found his phone. It was almost ten in the morning. Fifteen missed calls from Kairi. Five missed calls from Riku. Eight missed calls from Sora. Dozens of texts missed by all three. They all echoed the same sentiment. _"Hay-Hay! Where are you?" "Hey dude we're leaving soon. Where are you?" "Buddy, where u at?" "Hayner! C'mon. Answer your phone!" "This isn't funny, dude. We're going to miss the late bus." "Hayner ur scaring me dude."_

The shower water stopped and immediately he heard the curtain being pulled back. Hell. Calling them back would have to wait. He pocketed his phone and rushed to the window. He expected to be in some apartment in a crappy neighborhood, probably facing an alleyway where someone was getting shot. Instead he saw suburbia. The window was at the ground floor of some ranch home with three other cookie cutter ranch homes across the street. There was even a little girl riding her bicycle. This obviously wasn't anywhere near campus or downtown. Where the fuck was he?

Hayner backed up until the back of his knees hit the bed and he sat down. He wondered if he should do something about that bucket of vomit before he booked it. Too late. The bathroom door was opening.

"Ah jeez, you're awake. I was trying to be quiet."

Oh _hell_ no.

Hayner glanced over his shoulder and said the first thing that came to his head. "They're fucking shower pipes. They're always going to make the same level of noise. I call bullshit."

It was Seifer Almasy. He was in Seifer Almasy's cookie cutter ranch home. He was standing in the doorway to the restroom wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, soaking wet. Hayner wanted to punch him in the face all over again.

"Okay, guilty. I have to leave in like five minutes and I didn't want you here."

"Yeah. Where the hell's here? What are you even doing here?"

Seifer walked across the room to a chest of drawers by the closet door. "It's funny how you think you have a right to ask that question. First I see you at my bar, then you're out getting…" He paused, looking at Hayner's face.

"First of all," the younger boy said, filling the millisecond of a void Seifer left open, "it's not your bar, it's Riku's family's bar."

"I don't know who Riku is."

"_Secondly_, I don't-"

"You don't remember what happened last night, do you?" Seifer reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of boxers. Hayner turned to face the window while he heard the towel drop to the ground.

"It's cloudy."

"Obviously. When did you start drinking? Jesus, what are you, seventeen?"

Hayner didn't turn around as he heard him open and shut drawers and go into his closet. "Eighteen. My friends can get me into places… You know, I don't have to explain myself to you."

"Oh. So who was that guy you were necking with last night?"

What.

"I know we didn't really hang out much in high school, but I feel like that's a rumor I would have caught on about."

Hayner was speechless. He turned around and Seifer was still in his closet. He stepped out while pulling a shirt on. A snug polo.

"…I don't…"

Seifer cracked a smile. "Jesus, chickenwuss, your face is bright red!"

"I don't remember doing that! What did he look like?" Hayner could feel his heartbeat picking up. Seifer caught on to the rise in panic and for once didn't go out of his way to make things worse. "What happened?"

"I thought you were trashed. I was walking to my car after my shift, I got off early around midnight, and I saw you with this guy… taller n'me and had dark hair." Hayner tried to remember. The club was dark and there were a bunch of flashing lights but that was him. That was definitely him. He couldn't remember his name, but his face was slowly coming back. "…He had you pinned to his car and you guys were kinda… goin' at it, y'know?"

Hayner blushed. Even Seifer looked like he was getting uncomfortable, but he continued anyway. "And um. I didn't recognize it was you at first until he said something about getting in his car. I recognized your voice when you said you didn't want to."

"He tried dancing with me."

"He did what?"

"I mean- I never. I'd never even… before… I'd had three drinks. And then he goes and gets me a drink and then we chat for a bit, and then he asks to dance…"

"You had a drink? And you didn't know the guy?"

"I don't remember anything after that. Like at all."

"You were roofied."

"I was _not_."

Seifer frowned. "Or _something_. Whatever, dude. I'm on a schedule. Are you okay?" He seemed genuinely concerned.

Hayner took a deep breath. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I got my phone. Don't worry, I'll call a cab."

He made a move to pull his shoes on and Seifer sighed loudly. "No, don't worry about it. You wanna get near campus, right? It's on the way. We'll take my car." He spoke quickly, not giving Hayner a chance to argue. "One sec, though."

The older boy walked briskly towards the door. From what Hayner could tell, it opened to a hallway. "Meemaw!" Seifer said loudly. He glanced to Hayner and said a quick apology before walking out the door. "Meemaw did you eat your breakfast?"

Hayner's shoes slid on easily as he grabbed his shirt and was about to head for the door. That is, until he remembered his bucket of vomit. He reluctantly took it with him as he explored the different layers of the house. Now that the smell of damp showers wasn't clouding his senses, the house seemed rather old. The hallway was lined with family portraits, young and old. There was a photo of Seifer's family when he was a toddler. Even though Hayner didn't know him then, it was impossible to miss that face.

As he got closer to the end of the hall, the voices became clearer. Seifer was talking to an old woman. "-gonna kill me. You really need to eat all your breakfast, Meemaw."

"What day is it?" she asked.

"Saturday. No stories today. Wanna watch a movie?" He was leaning on a small dining table cluttered with junk mail. The rest of the house was a lot different than Seifer's room, and showed who had true ownership of the home. The den was filled with eclectic collectibles that can only belong to an eighty-year-old lady. "You've got Sound of Music. That's a good one, wanna watch it?"

"Okay." The way she answered was almost wistful. Hayner was beginning to get the picture here.

"Okay Meemaw. I need you to eat this for me first." He held out his hand, and she reached up and took a pill from him. She swallowed it quickly and took another bite of oatmeal. "Good work! Alright, let me pop in the movie and then I'm leaving, remember?"

"You're leaving?"

"Yes, Meemaw. I have an audition for the commercial today. I should be back soon. Miss Aeris will be here at eleven. Can you try not to burn down the house until then?"

"No promises," she said with a grin.

Seifer smiled and rubbed her back, leaning down for a quick kiss on the head. "Atta girl. Let's go to the couch."

He helped the old woman up and led her towards the couch. She stopped mid-step when she noticed Hayner standing in the entryway to the hall. "Oh! Who's that?"

"You don't know him, Meemaw. That's a friend of mine. This is my old friend Hayner, from high school." This was probably the biggest lie Seifer ever told. "I used to talk about him a lot." _Nothing but good things, I hope_, Hayner thought.

She looked at Hayner with all the recognition of a goat being asked if it remembered the sounds of a beluga whale mating call. "Oh, Hayner. Hello!"

"Hello, ma'am," he replied as casually as he could. As if this morning wasn't uncomfortable enough already. He was pretty sure he had never met Seifer's ancient 'Meemaw' before. Perhaps he was just lying so the women wouldn't freak that there was a stranger in her house.

Seifer continued helping her until she was sitting on the couch. He turned on the TV and cracked open a very old and very loved VHS copy of The Sound of Music. The previews started playing and Seifer kissed her on the head again.

"Okay, I'm heading out."

"You're leaving?"

"Yes, Meemaw. I have the-"

"The audition. Sorry, Seifer…"

"It's okay, Meemaw. Aeris will be here at eleven. I'll be home before three, depending on traffic."

"Bye, sweetie! Love you!"

"Love you too."

"Good luck!"

Seifer motioned for Hayner to follow quickly. They headed through the kitchen to a door that led to the garage. It wasn't until Seifer had locked the door before he sighed heavily. "Sorry about that," he mumbled, heading towards the car. It was the only car in the two-car garage. The rest was filled with antique furniture and rolled up carpets.

"Nothing to apologize for." The car had manual locks so Hayner couldn't get in until Seifer unlocked the door from inside. The garage door took a moment to open, but soon they were on their way.

The ride started in silence. Hayner figured it was foolish to expect Seifer to fill in the quiet with any sort of conversation. "So…" he tried, "what commercial are you auditioning for?"

"Car commercial. For Audi. It'll be nationwide. I really hope I get it."

"Will it pay a lot?"

"Not, you know, a _ton_, but… Enough to maybe see about putting Meemaw up in a home. And maybe I can sell the house and she'll be taken care of until…" he trailed off and cleared his throat. "But, I mean, I can afford an apartment on my own, I just can't leave her alone, y'know?"

"She's your grandma?"

"Great-grandma," Seifer answered with a soft laugh. "My mom's mom's mom."

"And she lives on her own?" Hayner asked, totally surprised. The lady had to be in her nineties by now.

"Not exactly. She has me. But when I moved over here the plan was to crash on the couch for a few weeks until I found a place of my own, but that didn't happen. I helped her clean up the house a little bit, helped with her meds… Aeris – her day nurse – said I was a big help so it became difficult to leave."

"Oh," was the only response Hayner could think of. Here he was studying and partying in school while Seifer's life wasn't unfolding like he planned. It wasn't exactly like Hayner was the type to laugh at his Rival's comeuppance, so hearing about Seifer's the life the past couple years made him feel glum. "Well, I hope you get the spot."

"Me too."

There was another long bout of silence. Hayner wasn't incredibly familiar with the highway systems since he was bound to campus by the bus routes. At least they were out of the suburbs and moving a lot faster. Hayner fiddled with his shirt laying in his lap. "Oh, yeah, why am I not wearing my shirt? Is this yours?"

"It's mine," Seifer sighed. "You barfed all over yours." Hayner instantly recoiled his hands from the shirt in his lap. "You can keep it. It's just a cheap shirt."

"I don't need your shirt."

"And I know you're only eighteen so you don't know a lot about the scene, but let me give you a few pointers…"

And Seifer, once again being only a year older, just _loved_ to lord his experience over Hayner. "I didn't ask you for advice."

"You're in my car and I'm giving you a ride home outta the kindness of my fucking heart. It's the least you could do," Seifer replied, giving Hayner a pissed-off sideways glance. Hayner turned to look out the window and remind silent. "So when you go to bars, have some sort of game plan. Even if you're taking the bus home all that means nothing if there isn't someone sober enough to get you home." At least the last time Hayner got drunk, he vaguly remember Riku getting him back to his dorm. "And Jesus Christ, chickenwuss, _don't accept drinks from random strangers._ Just because you aren't a girl doesn't mean it isn't still a threat. There's douchebags out there _everywhere_. If I could tell you how many drinks I had to throw out at work because I saw a guy, and in _seven_ cases a girl, slip some shit into a drink. It's fucking crazy."

It was all good advice, Hayner guessed. He was right about one thing: he wasn't a girl and nobody had ever taught him how to defend himself in these situations. He was embarrassed about what he was going to tell his friends. Which reminded him… "I have to call someone," Hayner said, getting out his phone. He decided to start with Kairi.

Not even half a ring went by before she answered. _"HAYNER! Oh my God, are you okay?!"_ she sounded like she had been crying.

"I'm okay. I'm fine."

"_Where were you?! Why didn't you answer your phone! We were going to call the police but Riku said we couldn't until the first twenty-four hours went by and we didn't see you in the club for hours and we were panicking!"_

"I'm sorry. I'll explain when I get back…" He turned to Seifer. "How far away are we?"

"About five minutes."

"Can we meet up at the cafeteria in like ten minutes?"

"_Who are you with?"_

"My knight in shining armor," Hayner said, grinning as he glanced to his side at Seifer's scowl. Kairi seemed relieved. "I'm fine. Can you tell the others I'm okay? … Alright, I'll see you guys soon." Hayner ended his call.

"So who was that? Girlfriend?"

"A girl who is a friend. She's a classmate. We take engineering together."

"Is that Riku?"

"What? No. Riku's a guy. He's the youngest brother of the dudes who own the club you work at." That sparked a weeks-old memory that Hayner had to smother in order to focus on studying for his midterms. "You were working there that night I went, right? Why didn't you say anything?"

Seifer looked uncomfortable for a moment. "You were trashed. It was weird." He shrugged his shoulders and never let his eyes leave the road. "At first I wasn't sure if it was you or not. Like, after _years_ of not thinking about it, you just pop up in the last place I'd expect."

"I can think of a couple places a little more out there…"

"Yeah. But you were mister Ivy League, if I recall." They were driving into campus now. Hayner had to start directing him to the dorm.

"Turn left."

"So… what happened? I mean, Traverse isn't even the top school in the state."

Hayner was wondering if he should tell Seifer the whole story. But that seemed like too much payment for a short car ride. "Well, a lot happened that year after you moved. Turn left again. It's that big beige building on the corner."

Seifer started to slow down as they approached the dorm building. "Okay, well, yeah. Remember what I said about the drinks. Seriously, you should wait until you're older."

"Okay, kettle," Hayner said, getting out of the car as soon as it stopped. "Thanks for the ride, dickbutt."

Seifer scoffed. "Whatever, chuckenwuss. Another tip: When you're drunk sleep on your side so you don't choke on your vomit." Hayner slammed the door and watched for a moment as Seifer sped away. He was having a difficult time keeping a small smile from growing on his face. Seifer hadn't changed much, but for some reason their little chat was a relatively pleasant experience.

Before walking off, he folded his shirt as tightly as he could and stuck it in his back pocket. Hayner took the back entrance into the cafeteria so he wouldn't bypass his friends on his way to the food. He loaded up on the essential food groups, greases and carbs, before finding them sitting anxiously at their usual table. Kairi was the first to notice him approaching the table and stood up quickly, almost knocking her chair down in the process.

"Hayner! Thanks God!" She waiting until he'd placed in tray down before wrapping her arms around him. "I was so scared!" Once she had that out of her system she backed off and punching him in the chest. "Never do that _again_!"

Hayner coughed and laughed hesitantly as he took a seat. "Yeah, man. Wanna explain what exactly happened last night?" Riku asked.

"We looked _everywhere_," Sora said. "We even spoke to the manager and she had her security help us look for you."

Hayner was still really embarrassed about the fact he was roofied. He wasn't exactly ready to tell them yet. All he would get was their pity, and they'd be super protective of him the next time they went out. He decided to keep it to himself for now. "It's actually a pretty crazy story," he said with a smile. Sora seemed excited, but Riku was unsure and Kairi was still looking worried.

"So I had a _ton_ to drink last night. With Riku's drink, the two I bought for me and Kairi," he turned to her and gave her a wink, and she rolled her eyes.

"There was _suuuper_ cute guy that I think I see at the coffee place in the Union sometimes. I wasn't gonna pass up that chance."

"And at some point I was drunk and flying solo. I blacked out and woke up at… are you ready?" Sora started drum rolling his fingers on the edge of the table before rounding out by hitting the lid of his soda cup like a cymbal. "Seifer Almasy's grandma's house."

Riku tilted his head, looking interested. "The bartender at my brother's bar?" It had been weeks since he passed Seifer's information off to Hayner. He just figured the kid wasn't going to do anything with it. "He lives with his grandma, huh."

"Yeah. It was… interesting."

"Wait-," Kairi said. "So, instead of taking you home, he takes you to his grandma's? Who even does that?"

"I guess I was too drunk to give him proper directions?" Hayner replied with a shrug. Kairi harrumphed and focused strongly on her coffee. "But he was like- an _adult_. It was weird."

"Weird," Sora echoed. "Did, like, his bed sheets match his pillowcases?"

"You know what? They _did._ I bed that's why the whole situation of waking up in his room was so incredibly awkward."

"You were in his room?" Riku asked. "In his bed? Did you guys share?"

It hadn't occurred to Hayner to think about it. He was so disoriented when he woke up that the last thing on his mind when he saw his rival was wondering where he'd slept last night. "I'm sure he just slept on the couch," Hayner brushed off, but it was still something interesting to note. That Seifer would give up his bed for some drunk kid who wasn't even really his friend.

Kairi suddenly perked up. "Oh…! _Oh!_"

"What?" Hayner asked.

She looked like she was remembering something she forgot last night. She started waving her finger in the air on the verge of a grand epiphany. Ultimately, she used it to point at Hayner. "Nothing." It wasn't nothing. "…Later. We'll talk later." She aimed her index finger at Sora and Riku. "So, now that we know Hayner isn't lying dead in a ditch, how was the show?"

Sora shrugged. "It was alright."

"Show?" Hayner asked. "What show?"

"While you and Kairi were dancing, Sora was worried we were going to miss the Ragnarok show. We ducked out early before all the shit went down."

Hayner winced. "Did I cause shit?" he asked, turning to Kairi.

"You caused a little bit of shit." She took a sip of her coffee. "So I noticed after, like, a while that I couldn't see you. I tried texting but you weren't responding. I got a hold of the guys and they tried contacting you. They came back to the bar and that's when we started searching."

"It would've been more fun if we weren't dragged out early," Riku said, brow raised.

Hayner could only grimace. "I'm really sorry about that, guys," he replied. "I'll make it up to you, promise."

"It was our fault for bailing without letting telling you. I guess we sorta figured that Kairi would have told you that would be the end of it."

"And now we've learned a very valuable lesson," she said, finishing off her coffee. "Never give me shit to do." She crushed the paper cup in her fist and stood. "Okay, I'm outtie. You losers hanging out?"

"I actually feel like Kentucky fried crap, so I'm going upstairs to sleep," Hayner said. He'd barely touched his food, but felt comfortable that this would at least last him until an early dinner later in the afternoon.

Riku and Sora looked at each other and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess we're done, too," Riku sighed. They both stood up and unanimously agreed that last night sucked and to never let it happen again. Hayner didn't have to leave the building to make it back to his dorm and walked towards the elevators. He noticed Kairi was sticking around.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Nothing. Curious."

"'Bout what?"

"Whose shirt is that?"

Hayner looked down and realized, yes, there wasn't a skip in the time-space continuum and he didn't magically revert to the outfit he was wearing last night. His original shirt was still folded and stuffed into his back pocket. He could feel his face heating up, and that only made him more embarrassed. "You see, you ask a question that way and people are going to assume the worse."

"I'm not assuming anything," she reassured. "Like I said: curious." The elevator binged and she got inside with him. It was empty so she took the opportunity to keep talking. "You said you weren't friends with Seifer, and then he loans you a shirt? I'm guessing that's his shirt."

"You're _assuming_," Hayner corrected. "You know what happens when you assume?"

"It's not an assumption if I'm right."

"It's not that big of a deal, anyway. I threw up at some point last night and he gave me a clean shirt. No big deal."

"What does he look like, Seifer?" she asked. The elevator opened to his floor.

"Um. I dunno, kinda average, I guess. A little taller than me. Beefy. Blond hair."

"Blond? So he wasn't the guy chatting you up last night?"

Kairi had seen everything. Hayner tried not to freeze mid-step, and managed to continue walking without Kairi noticing his little glitch. "Nobody was chatting me up…"

"Hay, there was a dude grinding all up on you on the dance floor, but he was wiry and had darker hair. I didn't even know you were gay, I-"

"I'm not."

Kairi paused and glanced to him. "Huh?"

"I'm not… _like_ that. Gay. I'm not."

They stopped walking conveniently in front of his door. "Hayner, I'm an engineer, not a psychology major. You're gonna have to explain it like I'm five." She started listing points and counting them off with a raised finger for each one. "You don't have a girlfriend. You've never really showed an interest in girls since I've known you. You dance with a guy, go home with another guy, and show up the next day saying you slept in his bed and are wearing his shirt. What part of that sounds straight to you?"

"And, see? You're doing that thing again where you ask a question with that kind of inflection that purposefully gets the worst reaction. You're not an engineer, you're a manipulator." He dug his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his door. He held it open for Kairi who walked into his room without hesitation. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time any of his friends had been in his room. Usually when they come to pick him up they call from the lobby.

"And you think somehow me asking a simple question about your sexuality is 'the worst.'"

"I'm not."

"_Please_. You're acting like I'm asking you if you kill puppies for sport or pleasure. And you're not telling me you're straight, either. So asexual? Or is this one of those 'doesn't fit in the binary' kind of deals?" She took a seat on his desk chair.

"I don't know what that is." What the hell's a binary? And Hayner definitely wouldn't file himself under asexual.

"You're still a virgin, right?"

_Now_ Hayner was embarrassed. His mom said there was nothing wrong with it. Hayner was so busy focusing on school work and prepping for Ivy League that he didn't have time to focus on dating. He had crushes, sure, but they never developed past his imagination. "…I am. So?"

"Hey, don't get defensive, alright? I'm a virgin, too. I'm not ashamed." It seemed weird that Kairi, the girl who wore deathtrap shoes and sexy dresses to clubs and danced with strangers was a virgin, but he guessed he'd never seen her date anybody either, and the boys she danced with didn't go home with her when she was done. "I'm not, like, celibate or anything. I'm not waiting for Mr. Right, I'm just waiting for Mr. Not-A-Completely-Pathetic-Mouth-Breather Esquire."

Hayner had never made a decision like that. He'd never woken up one morning and told himself that the reason he was a virgin was because he was waiting for the right girl. He was a virgin simply because he felt there were more important things in life than sex. And having a girlfriend _required_ having sex. It also required time and dedication that he felt he didn't have outside of his studies. Being smart didn't come easily to him like it seemed for Pence and Olette. He spent so much of his senior year with his nose in a book that he would've been teased if he weren't an okay blitzballer too.

When he thought about having a relationship with a guy, the notion wasn't met with a queasy stomach and trying to ignore the idea. He liked having guys who were friends. Sora and Riku were great friends, but he would never want sex from them. Same for Pence and Roxas. At the same time, Kairi and Olette were as far away from sex partners as Hayner could place a person.

"…I dunno," Hayner finally said. "Sex is always billed as the greatest thing ever, but it's not something I really feel like doing anytime soon. Does that make me weird?"

Kairi scoffed and looked around the room. "Uh, _no,_ that makes you a normal human being. You're only eighteen. Not everybody becomes a sex god in high school, loser. My mom told me that my dad was a virgin when he met her. Super cool guy, y'know? I love my dad, he's great. But the way mom describes him he was just too distracted to think about a dame. But when he met my mom everything changed and it was all in slow motion and _Close To You_ starts playing on a boombox in his mind and suddenly, bam- little Kairi is born. He was thirty one."

Hayner wasn't sure he wanted to wait that long for his first legit sex with someone. He always felt that sex was just a _thing that happened_, and it was inevitable. It seemed like a major even in his life that he had very little agency over. Apparently he did have lots of agency, he just didn't know how to use it. "I still don't know. Nobody's ever been really interested in me before."

"And that guy at the club?"

Hayner was blushing, he could tell. "He wasn't… He was just looking for an easy target. He knew I was drunk."

"You know, you had more drinks than that the last time we went out. Were you really that trashed?"

He bit his lip and looked down at the ground. "He gave me a drink. Don't tell the guys, _please_. I don't want this to change things."

Kairi's mood suddenly got a lot more serious. "Wait- you mean that guy _slipped something in your drink?_ What was his name? Do you remember?" She was standing now, pulling her phone out from her back pocket. "We can call the club and give them a description. Put him on their scumbag list."

Hayner liked that she was being so proactive about it. She wasn't blaming him or saying he was stupid for taking a drink from a stranger. She was immediately on the offense for the guy who did this. Unfortunately, "I don't remember his name. And he didn't stand out too much, it wouldn't do any good to give a description." Hayner sighed. "Just don't tell Riku or Sora, okay? I don't want anybody to feel like we can't go out anymore without feeling like they have to baby-sit me. You included."

She shook her head. "It's not baby-sitting to want to spend time with your friends when you go out, Hayner. All our behavior was atrocious and I apologize. Next time we'll have more fun, okay?" She smiled and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Now. I bet you feel nauseous. I'll let you rest and I'll see you later, okay? Call me if you wanna hang out."

"Sure thing."

He opened the door for her and locked it after she left. Never before in his entire life had he ever wanted to fall face-first into his bed so incredibly much. He threw his barfy shirt into the pile of dirty clothes in the corner, stepped out of his jeans, and collapsed into his pillow wearing only his boxers and Seifer's shirt.

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_Thanks for reading!_


	4. Be Our Guest

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a little bit since the last update. I moved! Pretty exciting stuff. Although I've moved seven times in the past eight years, I'll never get used to it. It's not the packing I mind so much as the unpacking. I usually like to have a buffer when I'm updating, but unfortunately this is the last chapter I have written so far. There might be an even longer break between updates this time around, but I'll continue to write as quickly as I'm able. For now, enjoy!

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**Hello Old Friend**

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"What're your Thanksgiving plans?" Kairi asked lazily. It was dinnertime and the group was eating their usual dinner at the cafeteria. Thanksgiving was about a week away and after that their lives would be devoted to finals before going home for winter break.

"Same thing as always," Sora answered. "Lunch with the family and sleeping it off."

"Same here," she sighed.

"The club's going to be open," Riku said. "I'll be spending it there." Riku was the only one in the group that lived in an apartment. The rest of them lived in dorms that were going to be empty during the holiday. It wasn't a prime situation, and it was going to be worse in a couple weeks when the dorms closed for winter break and everyone would have to fly home.

"I don't have any plans for Thanksgiving," Hayner admitted. "It'd cost too much to fly out, come back, and then go right back again for winter break." He was only a little sad about the idea. He loved his family and missed his friends, all of whom could easily drive back to Twilight Town for Thanksgiving. He missed the cold bite in the air and the changing colors of the trees that usually accompanied this time of year. Instead it was humid and the palm trees never faltered.

Riku seemed to be studying Hayner as the younger student poked at his macaroni listlessly. "Y'know… if you're needing something to do, my brothers are actually hosting Thanksgiving for the family at the club before they open that night. If you wanna go, I wouldn't mind at all."

"No fair!" Sora whined. "Is it going to be a traditional dinner? I've never had turkey at their restaurant. I bet it's awesome." He leaned back in his chair and cross his arms with a frown. "I could've canceled my plans…"

Riku laughed. "No, you couldn't. I _know_ your mother." Kairi coughed. "And she'd never allow it."

Hayner couldn't help but smile. Thanksgivings at his home were usually low key. Even though it was just the three of them, they always tried to have something of a traditional dinner, even if they usually ended up watching television while they were eating. It would be nice to have what he imagined would be the savory kind of turkey dinner you see in cooking magazines and in commercials.

"That sounds awesome, Riku. Thanks. Do I need to bring anything?"

"I healthy appetite, I guess. And a strong stomach. My family can be a little… intense."

Hayner nodded. "Go on."

"So you're going to be meeting my dad _and_ my step-mom. They're divorced but don't hate each other, so she still comes by for holidays. She's remarried so you're going to be meeting her husband and his children, my, uh… step-stepsiblings, I guess. There're three girls and two boys. They're all way older than me – from a previous marriage – and most of them have kids, so you'll be seeing my… I guess you call them my step-step-nieces and nephews?" He turned to Sora, as if the only-child with happily married parents would know. The brunet just shrugged and ate another forkful of string beans. "And my step-mom was an only-child but my dad was the youngest of five and they have their spouses and some of them have kids so you'll be meeting my cousins, too."

Hayner wasn't sure, but he was pretty positive this was the most Riku had ever spoken around him without being interrupted. He was impressed. "So, will I be quizzed on this?"

"I'll provide the Scantron and a number two pencil. You need to bring your own blue book for the essay portion."

"Well that isn't horrifying," Hayner said. The kicker was, knowing Riku, he wasn't sure if he actually needed to bring a blue book or not. "So, have you guys made your winter break plans yet?"

"Well, because of stupid studying for my stupid finals I'm only going to make it for the first couple days of Chanukah, thanks to Thanksgiving break. I'm going to be in _class_ for most of it, though," Kairi groused.

"You were in school for it last year, too. What difference does it make?" Sora asked.

"Spoken like a true agnostic. You're the worst kind of person," she said, glaring at her friend venomously from behind her mashed potatoes.

"Dude, you don't even practice. You put bacon on your baked potato last week. _There's bacon in your mashed potatoes right now_."

Kairi looked down at her dinner plate. "What do I look like, my Rabbi? So I may have _fallen from grace_ a bit." The boys all glanced at each other. "It's the cafeteria's fault for selling crappy mashed potatoes." She made a point by flicking one of the dried pieces across the table. "But it sucks that there's almost, like, an _entire_ month off for school and I can't spend one of my favorite holidays with my family."

Hayner had to agree with Kairi, too. He wasn't exactly Christian but he still celebrated Christmas with his family every year and nobody thought twice about it.

"I'll trade your winter break for mine any day," Riku said. He turned to Hayner to explain. "My family's Super-Catholic. We're going to midnight mass on Christmas morning and it's going to be awful."

"You stay up until four in the morning all the time anyway, what difference does one night at a church make?" Sora asked.

"_You're an agnostic,_" Riku and Kairi replied.

"Your parents never made you do any of the stuff ours did," Kairi tacked on.

"Never been baptized."

"Never been circumcised."

"Never took Communion."

"No torah practice."

"No confirmation practice."

"No bar mitzvah."

Sora just bobbed his head and rolled his eyes as they kept going. "I know, I know. I'm a heathen and I'm going to Hell."

Kairi turned to Hayner. "He's _totally_ going to Hell."

"I thought you guys didn't believe in a Hell. I thought it was all about personal demons and stuff…"

"You wanna try me on that?" she asked.

"At least Riku has his apartment," Sora sighed. "He gets to come back whenever he wants. We're all stuck at home until the dorms open again." It seemed like Sora was trying to turn the blame game onto Riku. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.

Apparently Riku wasn't having it. He just rolled his eyes, apparently used to these kinds of turnabouts, and went back to his dinner. There were five dorms on campus, six if you included the ones only available to athletes, which excluded present company. Hayner lived in the biggest dorms, also the cheapest, and had his single room. Sora had his own room thanks to a clerical error. Kairi lived in the women's dorm down the street from Sora. Hayner didn't know much about her living situation since he figured he wasn't allowed within twenty meters of the establishment.

"Well, even though we have to wait a little extra longer, the dorms still open like two weeks before school starts. We could have some fun during then," Kairi said. "You know. Food for thought." She took another bite of her bacon-encrusted mashed potatoes.

It was hard for Hayner to even consider life after finals with all the work he had to accomplish to prepare. The most he could do was hold his breath and wait for it to be all over.

Luckily, not much different from high school, the two school days before Thanksgiving were a breeze. He noticed that most of his classes were empty, and during his Engineering lecture with Kairi, she informed him that most kids don't even bother going to class at all.

"Sora and I are catching the same flight there and back," she told him. "We'll be back here Saturday afternoon. Have fun with Riku! His family's _awesome_."

The way she said it made Hayner unsure whether she really thought Riku's family was awesome or if she was implying they were intense in a… y'know, _awesome_ way. With Sora and Kairi gone on Wednesday night, Hayner found him spending most of his evening with Riku.

"So are there any topics I need to avoid?" Hayner asked. "Like politics, religion, the usual stuff?"

"All of it," Riku asked. "It'd probably be better if you just… didn't talk. At all. My family will always find something wrong with _something_." If Hayner didn't know any better, he'd say Riku looked panicked.

"…Is everything okay?"

Riku only blinked and straightened himself out. "Yes."

"Is this about…?" he drawled a little on the end hoping Riku would help fill in the blank for him, but the older boy was being no help at all. "Is this about Sora?"

Riku glanced away from his food and gave Hayner a stern look. "How do you mean?"

It had been all quiet on the western front since they had snuck out for the concert the night of Hayner's _incident_. He hadn't even noticed that many stolen glances or awkward blushing that had been almost par for the course up until that time. There didn't seem to be any aggression between the two boys. If Hayner wasn't pretty certain there was something going on between them he'd be convinced they were just _friends_.

Luckily, Riku's response gave Hayner something of a clue. It _did_ have to do with Sora, or else Riku would have asked '_what'_ he meant instead of '_how_.' In context, '_how_' implied that there were multiple ways in which Sora could be involved, while '_what_' implied Riku could have no idea what Hayner was talking about. It would be easy for Riku to backtrack and ignore if Hayner said the wrong thing.

It was all a little too far down the rabbit hole than Hayner was willing to sink himself at the moment. He shook his head. "Nothing."

From then Hayner assumed Riku would drop it. He wasn't the easiest person to talk to and Hayner was finding himself getting frustrated. Whatever. He would just go upstairs and download some episodes of _Tetralogy_ before crashing. Or if he felt up to it he'd maybe try and get a late-night workout at the gym since it would probably be closed on Thursday. The long, pregnant pause was interrupted when Riku finally spoke again. "Alright, so my dad and I got into a fight a couple days ago."

Hayner was halfway through swallowing a wad of meatloaf and the announcement had caught him off guard. "Whu?"

"He doesn't like that I'm an art major and he wants me to go into business. My brother Loz majored in business and now he owns his own successful restaurant and my dad wants me to try and do the same but I _don't want to_."

The younger student was under the correct assumption that this conversation was going to get heavy. He was practically finished with dinner and it looked like Riku wasn't going to eat anymore. "You wanna…" he motioned for the door, "I dunno, talk about it?"

At first it looked like the answer was a clear 'No,' but after Riku huffed a bit he sighed in defeat. "Yeah…"

There was no bite in the air like there would have been on an autumn evening back home. Hayner found himself comfortably walking around in a tee shirt. For Riku, however, the boy was used to island lifestyle and anything below seventy-five degrees was sweater weather. He crossed his hoodie-clad arms and dispensed with the talking.

"So here's his way of thinking: anything worthwhile being creative comes from inside, it can't be taught. But I already feel like I'm learning a lot in art school, just by being taught certain things I never would have thought to do on my own. Like I would have never worked with oil paints if I wasn't forced to do a project with them, y'know? But my dad says that every businessman could be an artist, but not every artist can be a businessman, and to be successful in art, you have to be a businessman."

"I can see his logic," Hayner replied. "The business school's pretty big here." In fact, it was one of the biggest in California. Traverse College was pretty well known internationally for it's business and engineering departments. It's art school, however, was never something Hayner paid attention to. He wasn't sure if it was because he lacked any real interest in art, or because it was a weak program that didn't merit a lot of praise. There were probably other schools that had a better art department where Riku could learn even more. "So what made you come to Traverse, anyway?"

"It seemed like the right idea," Riku shrugged. "I'd applied to some other colleges. My grades weren't exactly _perfect_ in high school, but with my portfolio I was good enough to get into some better colleges. But I knew Sora and Kairi would probably wind up here, so I took the preemptive step."

"So you came here because Sora and Kairi were gonna go here?" Hayner replied. "Isn't that the same as going following your girlfriend to college? Like, a bad idea?"

Riku shrugged. "Things have been going great so far. And we met you," Riku said, giving Hayner and cheeky grin and nudging him in the arm with his elbow. "The first year here alone was _painful_. People here are so different. You wouldn't believe."

"Oddly enough, you three are kinda similar to my friends back home. Don't tell them that, though. They'd be upset."

"Lips sealed."

This was nice, being able to talk to Riku like this. As they were walking to nowhere in particular, Hayner noticed they were getting closer to the clock tower. This was the place he would consider when he first became friends with the three of them.

"So another question, how did you know Sora and Kairi would come to Traverse? Did you guys talk about it beforehand?"

Riku shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, yeah. When I got my letters back from schools I had gotten accepted into most of them. I sat down with my friends and talked about which ones I should go to. We didn't want to split up the party, y'know? Sora and Kairi discussed which colleges they would probably go to. Kairi, being super into computers, figured she'd land at Traverse. And since Traverse has so many different fields, Sora figured he'd have plenty of time to decide what he wanted to major in."

"And he's undeclared."

"And he's _still _undeclared."

"I think it'll be okay, though. Once he starts taking a couple classes he'll start learning what he's best at and he'll choose a major that works best for him."

"Yeah. You see, you'd think that, but I know him. He's not dumb. He's actually really good at a lot of things and he's really broad-minded that choosing just one major that'll reflect strongly on whatever job he gets after this would _kill_ him. I don't even really see him as the type to hold down one job for longer than a year."

"Do you see yourself working a job for longer than a year?"

"As an artist?" Riku asked, cocking his head to the side. "God, I hope not. The end goal is to have paintings so renown that I can scribble a dog turd on a napkin and make millions of dollars."

Hayner nodded. "Sounds simple enough. Now all you have to worry about is making sure your snowball doesn't melt in Hell," he added sarcastically.

Riku shook his head. "Shut up." He was smiling though, so Hayner knew he was okay. It really seemed like Riku was starting to loosen up. "You know, I say stuff like that all the time. Like, sometimes I act like Sora and Kairi annoy me, but they really don't. And I say obnoxious things about my family, but I know that they love me. We may not be the best at showing it, but I know my dad really cares a lot about me…" he paused for a moment. "Sometimes it just helps to say it out loud." He chuckled slightly.

"I think a lot of people feel that way. It seems like your dad's heart is in the right place. My parents were sort of the same way before I left. They didn't want me to travel to California, but eventually they were okay with the idea."

"So what you're saying is," Riku said slowly, on the verge of a great epiphany. "Against my parents wishes, I need to move to Delaware to find myself."

"Yes."

"I'm packing my bags tonight."

Riku made no hurry to run off and prepare for his new life in Delaware. Instead he stepped a bit quicker and jumped on a short cement wall that surrounded the flowerbeds around the clock tower.

"Sometimes I feel like I got it all figured out," Riku said, trying to keep his balance. "But then somebody comes in and like…" He was having trouble finding the words, which was new.

"And throws a wrench?"

"Throws the _Titanic_. Throws the Hindenburg. And I just…" He stopped walking on the wall and just stared. "I'm getting tired." Riku jumped off the wall and looked at Hayner. "Is that cool?"

"Yeah man. I mean. It happens to everyone. Winter holiday is coming up and that'll be a good time to take a break for a while."

Riku stared at him for a brief moment before shaking his head. "No, I'm sorry, I meant 'tired' as in 'sleepy.' I'm sleepy. Is it okay if we break for the night?"

"Oh. _Oh_. Yeah, totally, sorry." Even with the giant clock tower in front of them, Hayner pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket to check the time. "What time should we meet up tomorrow?"

"Since campus is dead the busses won't be running as regularly, so we'll need to catch the ten-fifteen to downtown." Even though it wasn't in the same direction as his apartment, Riku started walking in the direction of Hayner's dorm. "Don't eat breakfast. Food starts at eleven at the restaurant. They open to the public at five."

The plans were made. Riku eventually broke off before Hayner reached his dorm. They met up again at the bus stop in the morning. Hayner had gotten there earlier, and Riku arrived about thirty seconds before the bus arrived. He was right when he said that campus was dead. There was nobody waiting at the stop where there were usually dozens, and there were only a couple people on the bus.

Riku played on his phone for the majority of the ride while Hayner was content to stare out the window. As they got closer to downtown Riku put his phone away to focus on street numbers so he didn't miss the stop.

"Any last minute sage advice?" Hayner asked as the bus hissed to a stop. Riku was looking out the window, across the street where the club was, with that small crease between his brows that meant he was annoyed. Hayner turned and saw at least fifteen people standing outside the club, all with the exact same, apparently hereditary, pale hair that Riku had. Almost all of them were smoking cigarettes or cigars.

"You're on your own."

They were only across the street and Hayner could already hear Riku's aunties shouting from him and waving wildly. When they made it within walking distance three older women rushed up and crowded around him.

"_Riku!_ Look at how you'd grown!"

"You're growing you're hair out like your father, I see…"

"Oh, I think it looks good. And look at his arms!"

"I remember when they were just noodles!"

"And you've got your mother's eyes."

"You must go to the gym all the time, when do you study?"

"There's almost no cheek left to pi-inch!"

Hayner watched while his quiet friend got coddled to death by his aunties. There were other people around, too. He assumed some of them were uncles. Since they were all Of Age it was difficult to tell who was related to Riku's side and who married in. There were some younger people in the crowd, Hayner assumed Riku's cousins, but they were still quite older by at least ten years.

"You must be a real lady-killer then, eh?" one of the aunties asked.

"Or maybe not… Who's this, Riku?"

Hayner felt that heat when people were both staring and talking about you at the same time. He turned to see Riku break away from the old ladies and walk over. "This is my classmate, Hayner Marshall. He was stranded for Thanksgiving so I invited him. Hayner, this is Aunt Sophie, Aunt Sonya, and Aunt Sara, my dad's big sisters" He started point to other people in the crowd. "That's Aunt Sophie's husband, Uncle Ivan, and their son Thom and daughter Quinn. Aunt Sonya's husband, Uncle Gregor, and their three daughters Johanna, Jordan, and Josephine. Aunt Sara's husband passed away but those are her son and daughter Orin and Henrietta. That's my dad's brother Samson, bachelor. The lady dressed in blue is my step mom; I'll introduce you later. And that's her current husband Phil and his kids Patrick and his wife Felicity, and his daughter Susan and her husband Nathan and their kids Jill and Lindsay. They have another son but he couldn't be here. And then there's…"

The chatter quieted down slightly when the restaurant door opened and two men walked out. While Hayner was familiar with the fact that Riku had three older brothers, he hadn't actually met or even seen them yet. One of them he assumed was Loz, a stocky boy wearing an apron with his hair spiked up, looking quite unhappy. The older man was a completely different sight.

He had long hair, a little darker than Riku's but Hayner hesitated to call it gray, that fell passed the shoulders and an all-black suit. The man was an intense, imposing figure. He was kind of the figure Hayner imagined being the head of some kind of…

Riku's family is the mafia. They are totally the mafia.

"Thanks for everyone who made it out today!" he said in a deep, happy voice. "Loz says the food will be ready momentarily so let's adjourn into the restaurant." While the family started snuffing out their cigarettes, the man quickly reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a thin, filter-less cigarette and lit up. He was greeting all the family as they passed by. "Gregor! And look at these girls! You ladies got someone special in your lives yet? Don't worry, it'll happen soon enough. _Orin!_ C'mere, you! Sophie stop terrorizing him, his tie looks fine. Riku! …_Riku!_"

Hayner watched as Riku clinched his eyes and stepped forward. "Hey Dad."

So this was Riku's father. He could sort of see the resemblance, but this guy looked so terrifying that Riku was like a toothless puppy by comparison. "Listen, I've been meaning to talk to you but you don't answer your phone." He held his cigarette and looked around for the trash can. He snuffed it out on the outside of the bin and threw it inside. "I wanna talk with you before you leave, alright?"

Riku reluctantly promised he wouldn't jet away after food was over. Hayner followed Riku inside while his father remained by the door to chat with one of his uncles. The older boy pressed his palm against his face "We're never getting out of here alive," Riku moaned into his hand.

The scene inside was equally chaotic with everyone talking at once. Most of the tables and chairs were stacked against the walls so the cleaning people could clear the floor in the mornings, but there was a bunch of tables shoved together to make something that would fit the large family.

Riku took his seat four chairs down from the head of the table, in a seat that had a small card with his name written on it. Hayner sat in the fifth seat in a spot marked '_Guest,'_ assuming it was for him. Something that he noticed rather quickly was that there were no staff working the event, rather Riku's brothers seemed to be handling everything.

"Hey squirt," one of them said, the middle child of Riku's three older brothers. He filled Riku's glass with wine almost all the way to the brim.

"Thanks. Yazoo, this is Hayner. Hayner, Yazoo." While Riku pinched his brow and took several large gulps, Yazoo nodded towards Hayner and held up an almost cartoonishly large bottle of wine and motioned towards his glass. Hayner let him fill it about halfway.

"Sora couldn't make it?" Yazoo asked.

"Nope," Riku answered somewhat loudly and piqued. "Not this year."

"Maybe next time." Yazoo turned and walked off. "_Be right there Jord!"_

There was a moment where nobody seemed to want to come up and talk to them. Hayner leaned over to Riku. "Y'know, so far this isn't so bad."

"Ugh. That's because-"

And that's when the club's doors flew open and a group of old people walked in. "What is this, huh? Starting without us?" shouted a ringleader of an old man hobbling along with a cane and wheeling a portable oxygen tank plugged into his nose. Nobody bothered trying to help him get across the room. He seemed like the type of man who'd bash someone's head in with his cane for trying. "The van is _five minutes_ late and you start without us. You're all off the will."

"Hello Grampa," most of them said, but all of them stood up, even Riku. Hayner figured it best to stand as well.

The old man waved his hand to get everyone to sit down. "That's enough, that's _enough_," he insisted, but nobody dared sit until he took his place at the head of the table. An equally old woman with blue hair, Hayner assumed his wife, sat in the first seat on his right. Grampa waited for her to sit before following suit, and then the rest of the table sat down.

A man, Hayner recognized as probably being Riku's Uncle Samson, kissed her on top her head and sat in the seat next to her. "Hey mom. You're looking good." She smiled and patted him on the hand. Hayner also noticed that even though the three of them were married with family attending the dinner, Riku's three aunts sat beside Samson and Riku's dad capped off the end.

Once the family was seated Yazoo appeared instantly by his grandfather's side a poured him a glass of wine from a different bottle than the others. Hayner watched as the old man went through the steps of tasting the wine the same way Hayner was taught the first night he went out with Riku, Sora, and Kairi. When the old man seemed pleased Yazoo poured him a full glass.

There was another one of Riku's brothers placing dinner roles on the tables. As he got closer to the head of the table he accidentally-on-purpose elbowed Riku in the head.

"Whoops. Sorry buttkiss," he said, placing a breadbasket in front of them. They were yeast rolls, Hayner's favorite. "Y'know when pops said you were exempt from helping because you were bringing a _special guest_ I thought it was girlfriend or something. What the hell's up with _this_?"

"_This_ is Hayner, my classmate. Hayner, this is Kadaj. Forget everything I've said about him. He's actually much worse."

Kadaj only nodded at Hayner in recognition. "Whatever, man. You should at least help bring some of the side dishes out. It'd make Grampa happy to see you at least _trying_," he spoke in an angry whisper.

"I don't give a crap what he thinks of me," Riku groused. Kadaj shushed him loudly. "The guy's practically deaf and has one foot in the grave, don't-"

Hayner thought about what Riku said last night, about how he _says_ a lot of rude things about his family but doesn't necessarily mean them. Maybe he was so used to being the naysayer that he didn't know how to be cooperative, especially around his family. "You know, I don't mind helping out," Hayner mentioned. "If you need an extra set of hands."

Kadaj looked at Hayner again, this time with more attention. "Really? You'd do that? Because there's only like three of us and there's like twenty a' them. Loz is about to rip someone's face off if there isn't more help…"

"Yeah, no problem," Hayner said, leaving his yeast roll behind. "Riku?" The boy looked at him equal parts confused and angry, but he sighed loudly through his nose and stood up as well.

"Where do you need us?" he asked.

Kadaj practically beamed. "You grab the green beans," he said, pointing to Hayner. "And you grab the broccoli casserole." They followed Kadaj to the kitchen where Loz was running around in a panic. "I've brought help!"

Loz stopped mid-step and looked at them. "Great. Fucking great. Where were you thirty minutes ago, huh?"

"You said you wanted help, so I got help!" Kadaj yelled back. "_Jee_-zus. Here, take this." He handed Hayner a large, heavy ceramic bowl of green beans. There were three more just like it. "Take them and place them evenly throughout the tables." He handed Riku a rectangle dish that had the casserole and was given the same objective. "I need to help Loz, are you guys okay setting this up yourselves."

"Whatever," Riku replied, heading towards the door.

"Yeah, thanks, buttkiss!" Kadaj called after him. Hayner followed Riku out the swinging kitchen doors.

"Man, is it really bothering you to help your family this much?" Hayner asked.

Riku gave him an absolutely innocent '_who, me?'_ stare. "What'd you mean?" It was hardly Hayner's place to argue. If this was how Riku chose to show his love to his family, and his family seemed totally okay with that, he kept his mouth shut. They worked together to get the food out. The family didn't touch it until they were completely finished.

Kadaj and Loz finished in the kitchen and by the time everyone was at the table it was noon. Riku had warned Hayner about his family being Very Catholic, and they all bowed their heads to say Grace. Riku's grandfather ran the proceedings, and it ended up taking at least ten minutes, not that Hayner was keeping track…

After the _Amens_ were said, the family broke out into talking once again and it filled the large, cavernous room with noise. Hayner found himself it the absolutely horrifying positing of sitting directly across from Riku's dad.

"So… Hayner, was it?" the imposing man asked with a forkful of green beans.

"Yes sir." Hayner glanced to his side to see if Riku was aware that his father was trying to make small talk, but the boy seemed wrapped up in an argument with his uncle further up the table.

"And you go to school with Riku? What college are you?"

"Engineering."

He nodded. "Good major! Practical." It seemed like a dig at Riku, and Hayner couldn't help but wince after their conversation last night.

"So where're you from, Hayner?"

"Uh… small coastal town back east, Twilight Town. Since I'm going back home for the holidays I couldn't afford to fly two round trips so quickly, so… here I am," he said with a shrug, then added quickly, "And thank you so much for having me!"

"It's nothing at all. Riku only said he was inviting _someone_, you know he never really tells me anything. I thought it was a date…" And the way he posed that sentence made Hayner's face heat up.

"N-No sir. N-Not like that. I…" _Oh my GOD Riku, help me._ Could this please be the moment where Sora breaks down the door riding on a mighty steed to whisk Riku away and they can live happily ever after?

"Oh, no, sorry about that. You didn't hear?" Riku asked, suddenly butting into the conversation and Hayner couldn't be more grateful. "I have a smokin' hot girlfriend but she couldn't make it because she lives in Canada."

His father reacted with a deadpan smirk and turned his attention back to Hayner. "Hayner was just telling me about how he's an engineering major. Doesn't that sound like fun? Engineering?"

"Yeah, if you hate yourself."

"…_Hey_."

"No offense."

Luckily, at that moment a plate of carved turkey was being passed around. Hayner hadn't even the chance to eat his yeast roll yet. While Riku's father was staking meat onto his plate he continued with his investigation. "So, Hayner, what do you plan on doing with your engineering degree?"

Hayner could feel beads of sweat for every time Riku's father mentioned his name. Luckily Riku swooped in said, "C'mon, dad, he's only like a freshman in college. He hasn't even finished his _first semester_ yet. Let's wait and see if computers still exist in four to five years before asking him to let you read his resume, okay?"

His father gave him a look. "Where do you think computers are going in such a hurry?"

Riku didn't answer so his father's attention was back on Hayner. "I have a friend of mine who works at a small production company that focuses on robotics. If you're interested in an internship I can put in a good word for you." They had only known each other less than two hours and that was… surprisingly cool.

"I don't think my department lets us use internship hours for school until we reach a certain amount of completed credit hours. That might not happen until my third year, but… yeah! I mean, keep me in mind, if the company's still around by then." It was likely that a small production company wouldn't last through a couple of projects before folding, but Hayner bet that Riku's dad had a lot of other contacts he wouldn't mind taking advantage of. "Um. Sorry I didn't ask earlier, but what should I call you?"

Riku's dad looked up at him with a genteel smile as he was in the middle of cutting up his food. "Call me Sephiroth."

"So what do you do for a living, Mr. Sephiroth?"

"The family business," he responded, and Hayner's mind nearly imploded.

Sephiroth had his attention taken away by one of his sisters and Hayner whispered softly, "_I knew it."_

"Knew what?" Riku asked, finally passing along the platter of meat. Sora had every right be jealous of Hayner for celebrating Thanksgiving with Riku's family, because this turkey looked freaking amazing.

"Nothing. I just. Is your grandfather retired?" he asked, placing a couple slices of white meat on his plate before passing it along to the lady beside him, he was thinking it was one of Riku's older cousins.

"Hardly," Riku responded. "He still runs the TV studio. Uncle Samson helps with some of the day-to-day operations but Gramps absolutely _refuses_ to relinquish control. Aunt Sophie thinks that the stock holders are getting anxious and we should get new blood into the higher management."

"Have they made any decisions on who that new blood is yet?"

Riku shrugged. "I could tell you but I don't even know, and that's the kind of thing people like us get harassed about constantly." He motioned to his brothers beside him. It never really occurred the Hayner that since Riku had such an affluent family and he and his brothers might be harassed about the inner workers of the studio. "I get emails from people who found my contact information from school," he sighed. "They want information so they can sell it to E or Variety."

"Seriously?" It sounded crazy.

"Yeah. Like, when you're watching the news and they say stuff like 'A confirmed source says that So-and-So will star in the next blockbuster blah blah blah.' They take anything you have to say and twist it out of context. You just have to ignore them. I've been lucky," Riku said, turning to glance at his brothers. "Reporters sneak in undercover and try and weasel information out of the guys."

"Have they ever tried to harass you in person?"

"Nah. Anybody worth their paycheck knows I'm clueless. I'm an art major, after all," he replied with no hiding his bitterness. They went back to their meals, the conversation turning to more pleasant topics like the weather and how _Tetralogy's_ upcoming Christmas special was supposed to yield more views than last season's finale.

Three hours of food and conversation passed by before anyone noticed, and people started leaving the table to hang out in other parts of the club. The kids started up a game of hide-and-seek while Riku's brothers went to work clearing out the leftover food. "There's a lot of it," Loz said, packing them up into smaller glass containers. He turned to Riku and Hayner. "Do you guys want some to take back to campus?"

Before Riku could decide Hayner blurted out a "Yes!" and held a small bowl of broccoli cheese casserole like someone would snatch it right from his arms. Loz packaged the bulk of the leftovers into two fabric shopping bags with the club's logo on it. Hayner looked at the bag for a moment and realized he never knew this club had a name. It was always The Club when talking about it with the others, and it didn't help that the building didn't have a name on the outside.

It was apparently called 'Stigma,' a name Hayner wasn't sure what it meant. The logo was a crest-like shield with a large S in the middle, with two long swords crossed behind it. "I know Sora was disappointed he couldn't be here," Loz said, giving Riku a noticeably bigger portion of leftovers than he had for Hayner. "Make sure you share, okay?"

It humored Hayner that Sora was probably a member of the family, as far as Loz was concerned. He was like the little kid that never went home, only now they were all grown up. Loz didn't want to make any more work for his usual crew than normal, so Hayner and Riku were on task for washing dishes.

"I _hate_ washing dishes," Riku mumbled. The older boy's family didn't really strike Hayner as the type to make dish washing difficult. Riku had three brothers to split the chores between, and if they worked together it probably wouldn't be difficult at all. Hayner's family didn't have, or rather, couldn't afford, a dishwasher until he was in middle school, and he remembered spending a lot of school nights cleaning dishes alone as punishments for picking fights with…

"Hey, chickenwuss." Someone slugged Hayner's shoulder and he almost dropped the gravy dish. He looked over his shoulder saw, yes, that was Seifer. He was wearing a black collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black slacks. There was a tie draped around his neck and a black apron flung over his shoulder. The blond wasn't paying Hayner much mind as he was already walking away towards the end of the kitchen where Loz was cleaning countertops.

"You're early," he said.

He just shrugged. "Nah, just an hour. I wanted to make sure the bar was cleaned up before we opened, knowing your family…" Seifer took a step closer to the kitchen doors and took a peek outside the circular window to what the club floor looked like. Loz didn't say anything in response, and Seifer glanced to his side and noticed Hayner was still looking at him.

"What's up? This your new job or something?"

"I was invited," Hayner responded indignantly. "This is my friend, Riku. He's Loz's younger brother." Riku stopped scrubbing for a moment to briefly glance at the blond and mumble a greeting.

"Well, no shit? I remember you saying something about that," he said, turning to Loz. "Like rabbits, aren't you guys? Hey, is Yaz' around? I had a question about the menu."

Loz mentioned his other younger brother was probably at the main bar, around the corner and out of sight from the kitchen door. Seifer was gone again without saying much else. Hayner was a little disappointed he didn't stick around longer. "That's the guy?" Riku asked. Hayner wasn't sure how much about Seifer his friend knew, but there was a possibility he'd never really had the chance to see him in person until today.

Loz seemed to be wrapping up with the countertops. Hayner broke away from the sink for a moment, wiping his hands off on a dishrag. "Hey, Loz? Can I ask you a question?"

"Just did."

"…Um, how long has Seifer worked here? Do you know?"

The oldest brother paused to think for a moment. "I think a year… No, it'll be a year sometime in the spring. A while, though."

"That long?"

Loz could only shrug. "Yeah, it's longer than our average bartender, and Yaz' isn't any help, but he keeps talking about wanting to leave so, y'know…"

"Leave and do what?"

"I dunno… Act, is what he talks about a lot. But he's also mentioned going home. Says it's too expensive to live here," Loz said with a laugh.

Hayner frowned. "…Anything else?"

"I dunno, dude. The guy only chats with me on and off when we're in the same place and we're not open. Kitchen closes at eleven so I'm long gone before he gets off work." Loz wrapped up the conversation by throwing the rag he was cleaning with in an empty cardboard box on the floor, presumably for trash.

"Oh… Okay, thanks."

Loz left the kitchen to check on things on the main floor. Hayner walked back to Riku, who had also stopped washing dishes for a moment. "What's up, man? Something bothering you?"

Seifer wouldn't just _leave_. Hayner was sure. He saw how the older boy treated his great-grandmother and he wouldn't leave her until he knew for a fact she was well taken care of. As far as Hayner was aware, Seifer probably didn't get that commercial job he was hoping for when he last saw him a few weeks ago.

"Nothing's really _bothering_ me, it's just…" Hayner sighed. "I don't get it. Seifer was never an actor." He found himself laughing a bit. It was all truly ridiculous. Seifer Almasy? The next George Clooney?

"There's not that much left, I can take care of it," Riku said. "You can leave if you want."

Hayner smiled crookedly. "Nah, it's okay, lemme help out a bit…"

"No, I mean it. I don't want to stick around the family longer than I need to. The second I'm done here we're _gone_. Go talk to him while you've got time." Riku nodded over his shoulder to the kitchen door. Hayner only nodded and left.

The restaurant floor seemed slightly empty, like maybe one of the families had left, and without telling Riku goodbye. Something about that seemed weird to Hayner, because that wouldn't fly at his family gatherings. Everyone had to say goodbye to everyone and it could be an hour-long process before anyone actually made it out the door. He looked to the bar and found Seifer there chatting with Yazoo.

Hayner walked up as casually as he could manage and took a seat on one of the barstools. Seifer was talking. "-but they said they'd keep in touch with my agent if they had any spots in the future."

"But you know what that means," Yazoo replied, leaning on the counter while Seifer looked like he was organizing from below.

"Yeah, they said my face was maybe a little _too_ fresh. I look too young." Hayner noticed Seifer glancing at him and acknowledging his arrival. "So maybe in a couple years." He took out three tumblers from behind the counter and started mixing different drinks. Hayner could hardly keep up with how fast his hands were moving, each move calculated because he knew exactly where everything he needed was located. What really stunned Hayner was that he managed to keep talking while doing this. "I'm just really getting tired of the 'Better luck next time!' talks from the casting agents. Like they don't recognize a good thing when they see it."

"You'll get there. Maybe you just need to give it a few years."

"Yeah, like I've got a few years," Seifer grumbled, handing a tumbler to Yazoo, sliding one towards Hayner, and keeping one for himself. It seemed as if Seifer had poured the same drink for the both of them while Yazoo downed something fizzy in three large gulps.

"Ohmygod, _ohmygod_. It burns! You pour your drinks too strong." Yazoo stuck his tongue out, panting and fanning it off with his hand. "You don't pour them that heavy for everyone, do you?"

Seifer smirked, raising his glass and taking little sips. "Only for you, boss." He winked at him.

Yazoo paid little attention and slid his empty glass back to the bartender. "Alright, so you're here. We're expecting Paine too. Think you two can manage on your own?"

"Probably."

"I'm going to be upstairs if you need me. Call if the bar's on fire." Yazoo left, not even so much as glancing at Hayner, and walked up the staircases that led to the upstairs VIP area.

"It won't bite."

Hayner realized Seifer was now talking to _him_, and he sprung to attention. "Huh? What won't?"

"The drink. You haven't touched it." Seifer had taken out a rag was cleaning out a glass the same way Hayner saw bartenders behave in old wild west movies.

Not wanting to appear rude, he took a few sips and something felt different. There was no smell, and there definitely wasn't a burn. "There's no liquor," Hayner stated.

Seifer responded by throwing the rag in Hayner's face. "Fucking _duh._ Dude, you're eighteen, did you forget?"

The younger boy frowned and glared at the blond bartender. "_No_. It's just. What's the point, I guess."

"The point is, I poured it for you. It tastes good, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then shut up and quit complaining. Did you really want to get trashed on Thanksgiving with Riku's family around?" Seifer pushed. Hayner refused to dignify that with a response. "And you're a minor. And this is a _real_ establishment with laws and codes. I could lose my job if I served you alcohol."

WHO WAS HAYNER EVEN TALKING TO?

Seriously, the boy didn't know if he should laugh in hysterics or just leave. He'd had enough. There used to be a time when Seifer acted high-and-mighty by being aggressive and tease Hayner for being a "chickenwuss." And now he had the balls to pull the same act for the exact opposite cause. Hayner knew _for a fact_ that Seifer used to throw parties all the time in high school. With real beer and everything!

"That's… bullshit," Hayner said. "Are you telling me you're a bartender and you don't drink alcohol?"

"Not while I'm on the clock. See, you don't know any better because you've never been gainfully employed, but there's a little thing called _rules_ that you need to be aware of if you don't want your ass taken out."

Hayner nodded along, not believing a single word he was hearing. "Okay. So it probably won't happen until dorms open after holiday but, here's my game plan…"

Seifer frowned. "What plan, lamer?"

Hayner took out his cell phone. "I'm going to get your phone number, and I'm going to give you a call the next time we go out. And I'm going to wipe that stupid, self-righteous look of your face." There was a time when that level of threat would have taken them outside _right now_ and Hayner would have gotten the shit kicked out of him, but now that they were both different people he figured it was worth approaching things from a different direction. He unlocked his phone and the illuminated screen left an eerie glow on his face. "What's your number?"

They had an intense stare-down for a moment. Seifer was trying his best to look cool and it amused Hayner, and somehow made him feel like an adult, that he could point it out and not be as angry about it like he used to be. Reluctantly, Seifer pulled out his phone and started clicking a few buttons. It looked like one of those cheap pay-as-you-go phones you picked up behind the counter at a gas station.

It soon occurred to Hayner what he was doing. "Do you seriously not know your own phone number?"

"Shut up, it's a new phone," Seifer spat.

Hayner was grinning like a fool now. "So you seriously have like _no_ friends here, huh?"

Seifer lowered his phone and gave Hayner a deadpan glare. "Look. Do you need me to escort you off the premises? Because I kind of have the right to refuse service to _anyone_."

Hayner noticed the older boy had locked his screen as it went dark and he quickly shook his head. "No, no- Sorry! C'mon, I mean it. Let's hang out sometime!"

_Now_ Seifer seemed really confused. "Why are you doing this?"

Hayner tried not to bite his lip nervously. "…Because you're like the only person from back home that I know here!"

"That still doesn't mean we should hang out." The look on his face made it obvious that even Seifer was a little curious about why people with their sort of background would bother trying to reconnect. Most of these situations were better left for high school reunions ten or twenty years down the road.

"You're saved my ass a couple times, I owe you a drink for that."

"I don't need to save anyone for a drink. That's pathetic."

Hayner sighed. "Look. I'm not trying to trick you or anything. I'm serious. Let's hang out sometime. I'm sorry for what went down in high school, but we're not in high school anymore and I'd like to put that behind us."

He must have had a really genuine look on his face, because after a moment of scrutiny Seifer opened his phone again and started clicking through menu options. The way his phone glowed on his face really brought out the small ridge of a scar from their big fight. Hayner was really starting to feel apologetic about it now, but he bit his tongue. "Okay. My number is 555-3825."

"Awesome!" Hayner quickly added Seifer's number to his list of contacts. A moment later Seifer's phone pinged with a new text message.

"You work fast." Hayner watched Seifer's expression as he read _'chodemonkey.'_ "Well. I don't know what I was expecting."

Hayner was surprised when Riku suddenly appeared at his side. "Hey. Remember what I said about a hasty exit?" He was looking over his should where his dad was sitting talking to his grandfather. "Now would be freaking awesome. While he's distracted."

"Don't you need to say goodbye or something?"

"God, no."

"I though your dad wanted to…" Hayner was immediately cut off by a harsh glare from Riku. He shrugged and turned back to Seifer. "So we're on, then? Sometime after dorms open, let's hang out."

He rolled his eyes in response. "Whatever, lamer."

Hayner finished the last of his drink and slammed the tumbler on the heavily polished countertop. "Alright, let's go!" he said to Riku.

They were in such a rush to get out of the club quickly that Hayner's adrenaline was pumping like crazy by the time they got to the bus stop. They probably pressed the crosswalk sign six times until the symbol finally changed. He kept expecting to look over his shoulder to find one of Riku's silver-haired relatives creepily following them.

"I'd never seen him up close," Riku said, after a minute of panting.

"Who?"

"The guy. Seifer. He's _ripped_."

"Ripped."

"Like, do-you-even-lift ripness levels. I'm impressed." As far as manly-man muscles go, Hayner would probably put himself in second place between Sora's wirey, youthful arms and Riku's slightly more bulky, gym-sculpted arms. Most of his time spent at the gym was running the indoor track, but he still used the weight machines from time to time. Apparently not as much as Seifer.

"I always kinda figured it was generic or something. Like, can you even imagine someone like Sora getting buff? I can't even imagine getting buff. There're some people that you look at and it's just- yes. Yes, that person's meant to be fit and they probably came out of their mom with a six-pack."

And not that Hayner wasn't sure Seifer worked very hard for his body, but even seeing his body after he got out of the shower months ago echoed this feeling that nothing about him had really changed since high school. It was just as difficult to imagine a fifteen-year-old Seifer at one of those skeezy body-builder hole-in-the-walls as much as it was in his current nineteen-year-old form. Seifer was just born that way.

Hayner guessed Riku planned his quick and secretive duck-out a while ago, because they were hardly standing at the bus stop a minute before their next bus rolled around. They climb on and were whisked away back to campus. At this point in the day, the area was about the equivalent of a zombie movie. Everything was dead.

Except for a few bars nearby that were playing football on the giant TVs inside. Hayner and Riku had nothing better to do than to hang out a while longer. It had been a long time since the last one spoke. Hayner was enjoying the companionable silence sitting at a table in a pub before Riku said, "I have no idea what's going on." His comment was directed towards the giant flatscreen less than ten feet away from their table.

Hayner shrugged. "I don't really get it, either. But it's fun to watch." It was a college game, two schools that were nowhere near the west coast. That probably explained why hardly anyone was at the pub on a game day.

Hayner had placed his phone on the table next to his wallet, and it vibrated so loudly that even Riku flinched slightly. Soon the older boy was back to resting his elbow in the table with his chin in his palm. Hayner picked it up and checked the screen. It was a text from Seifer.

"_OK. D4hangin but not w ur stpd friends. Ill txt when I want 2 chill after xmas break. Deal"_

It took a moment longer to transcribe. Hayner may be young, but his Ivy School elite friends where kind of BFFs with punctuation and grammar, so the people he texted most didn't use language like this.

Typical Seifer for wanting to take matters into his own hands. He wouldn't dare let Hayner dictate when and where they hang out. Although Hayner was really interested in what kind of time Seifer would show him. He texted back _"Deal"_ and locked his screen.

He glanced up at Riku, who had been glancing at him from the side, and quickly moved his eyes back to the TV when Hayner caught him looking. It looked like the older student was curious, but Hayner didn't really want to give him the satisfaction. "So," Hayner asked, "what are your plans for winter break?"

He could almost see Riku visibly shiver at the thought of going back home to the islands to spend more time with his family.

"Nothing, if I don't get through finals, first," Riku mumbled into his palm. It seemed like Riku would have preferred some kind of horrific death-by-note-taking incident instead of going back home again.

"Yeah," Hayner sighed, looking back to the game. "I forgot about finals…"

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

_Thanks for reading!_


	5. You've Got A Friend In Me

Okay so... I bought KH1.5 and I'm super giddy. I'm playing proud mode (because I've ALWAYS played proud mode) but I keep dying. I didn't do much research on the game, but I read a review of it after it was released and saw a note for "more challenging proud mode." It took me five tries to beat Leon and Yuffie in the Pegasus Cup. I don't even want to talk about Ursula. ALSO- Has anybody here read the Kingdom Hearts manga? Yen Press recently reprinted ALL of it, including the volumes never tackled by Tokyopop! Later in November they're even releasing 358/2 Days manga. I'm a little distressed, because at the end of volume 2 of the KHII adaptation, it said "to be continued in volume 3" but... there is no volume three? I checked with Diamond solicitations and they didn't show anything, and finally I checked with the Yen Press site and they had nothing. I looked up a scanlator site and it seems that there's only been two chapters released since where the second Yen Press volume leaves off. I work at a book store and a most of the people I work with don't read manga, so this is pretty much the only place I can think of where people might care. Does anybody know if the KHII manga ever continued in Japan? Or did it just sort of peter off? Anyway, if you guys haven't read the manga adaptation I strongly recommend it. I thought it was hilarious, but my coworkers say I have a good sense of humor and laugh at pretty much anything... It's also just incredibly well-rendered art. Like, Beast from Beauty and the Beast _actually looks like the movie character_ which, when you love that movie as much as I do, you see some really wonky drawings of Beast out there...

Anyway. You didn't come here to see me ramble at videogames and manga... Here you go! Thanks for waiting and being so patient!

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

**Hello Old Friend**

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

"That's such a horrible color on you," Olette sighed, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand in dismay. Pence looked at her with a degree of concern and distress. He looked down at his teal windbreaker.

"What? What's wrong with it?"

"That color. Why didn't you buy the red one? I liked that one."

"It was like twenty bucks more!"

She gave him a look. "You know. It's okay to spend a little bit more if it means it's better. I had to teach my father that, too. Just because it's cheap doesn't make it a bargain. It makes it…" she paused to pluck at the garish nylon, "_cheap_."

Pence shook his head and looked around the crowd in the ski lodge. The cavalry should be arriving soon and saving him from this nightmare. Wait. Scratch that, this wasn't a nightmare. Olette was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. He had to keep reminding himself that in case Olette had developed mind-reading powers. It wouldn't surprise him.

Help came in the form of Hayner and Roxas shimmying through the crowds with mugs of hot chocolate.

"Thank you!" Olette said cheerfully.

"_Thank_ you." Pence took about ten gulps before making a face. "Ach, this is scalding."

"That's kind of the idea," Hayner said, sitting on the end of a large, plush leather couch.

Well, he had survived finals and his first semester's grade reports were posted online just in time for flying home to see his parents for the first time in months. Three As and one high C. It was for an elective that Hayner didn't devote as much time on as he wished he did, but his parents seemed ecstatic enough. _"Even Cs get degrees!" _his mom sang, entirely too happy to have her baby back from the west coast.

Christmas was actually pretty fun. All his old friends were back in town with their families and for the first time Hayner felt that pang of nostalgia that was only going to get worse as time went on. The good times weren't going to last forever, so they had to make the most of their freedom now, before families, jobs, and differences inevitably sunk in.

Which is how the four of them found themselves in a familiar ski lodge. It was where they had always gone skiing, about a two hour drive northwest from Twilight Town. This time was different, however, because that they were all independent (the exception possibly being Roxas, since he still lived at home, the poor creature). This time, there were no parents.

Hayner couldn't help but feel that this was where the real divide between his new and old friends showed. Had he been with Sora, Riku, and Kairi, they would be tearing the place up and getting away with murder without any adult supervision. It was almost comedic how Roxas, Pence, and Olette were trying so hard not to embarrass themselves so they could report back to their parents unscathed.

Perhaps this was the first _Difference_ that would inevitably lead to the demise of his past life, Hayner thought, because right now he really wanted to be tearing _something_ up.

"What slope to you guys wanna hit first?" he asked.

Roxas seemed perfectly content to sit on the couch by the fire forever with his mug of hot chocolate. He remained as quiet as ever and didn't voice an opinion. Pence and Olette, decked in layered clothes and windbreakers, even goggles around their necks, were ready to get out there.

"Oooh, I heard they re-landscaped the southern slope last spring," Olette said excitedly, scooting to the edge of her seat. "But I wanna do some beginner slopes first to warm up. What about you guys?" She was mainly asking Pence, who shrugged.

"I don't mind a couple bunny runs."

"Alright!" she stood quickly and glanced around the room. "Let's go to the rental hut before this place _really_ gets packed."

The rental hut was more crowded than the lodge. It was kind of a perfect storm that led to all of the people in their group not owning their own skis. For Roxas and Hayner it was more of a cost issue, for Pence it was his lack of willingness to exercise, and Olette went through a phase where she "didn't like to ski" so she pawned her only pair to help put a down payment on her car.

Hayner was last in line to choose, right behind Roxas. The blond looked at the selection before pointing to a board rather than skis. "I'll have that one."

"You've never done a snowboard before," Pence stated. "Do you even know how?"

Roxas looked a bit miffed. "I know how. I can skateboard."

"Because those are the same things," Olette muttered, carrying her skis outside to the benches. "Don't cry to me when you break a leg."

Roxas was never that great at skiing. Hayner wondered why he never tried out for the snowboard since he was half-decent with a skateboard. Hayner used to skate in high school as well, but he was nowhere near Roxas' level. He decided winter break wasn't the best time to test that. When it was his turn at the counter, he stuck with skis.

The group got their skis on and all shared a collected laugh when Roxas was too stubborn to take his board off his boots and jumped to get to the lift. He fell twice along the way and had to lean on Hayner to get on the seat for the lift. They were soon on their way to one of the weaker slopes for practice.

"I hope I don't regret this," Roxas mumbled, looking at the board attached to his feet. Before Roxas had moved to Twilight Town, he wasn't all too familiar with snow. The weather in Twilight Town usually guaranteed one good blizzard per winter. Hayner breathed in the cold mountain air and relished it. There wouldn't be much more of this when he went back to school in a week. He wondered what Sora, Riku, and Kairi were up to back at Destiny Islands. Probably surfing.

Hayner almost missed their stop if it weren't for Roxas pointing it out. He shook his head and turned to his friend. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Will you help me down?" Roxas repeated. The lift was slowing slightly so they could hop off. Roxas gripped Hayner's arm and… Hayner wouldn't call it _falling_, but his stoic blond friend landed very respectfully and gracefully on his ass in the snow. Hayner had to do his best not to laugh and he slid off his seat and rode up beside his friend to help him out.

"I'm sure it's a lot easier once you give it a few tries," Hayner reassured. Roxas rolled his eyes and pulled up his goggles from where they were resting around his neck. Hayner pulled his down from his forehead and they met up with Pence and Olette who had already jumped off from the lift in front of them.

"Alright. First circle-slope of the season!" Pence said enthusiastically. "Maybe before the trip's over we can manage a square."

"Maybe even – duh duh DUH – the _diamond_!" Olette added with zeal. She snapped her goggles onto her face and gleefully and made her way to the edge of the small hill. Olette would always love skiing, and it was nice to know that would never change.

Without much hesitation, she was the first to ski down the short and easy slope. Pence groaned and followed closely behind. Only Roxas and Hayner remained. "So, who goes next, you or me?" Hayner asked. Roxas only grimaced in response. Hayner could see the cogs turning in his friends mind. His face read, _'I've made a huge mistake.'_

"How about," Hayner suggested, "you go first. That way if something happens and I ski down and give you a hand?"

Roxas nodded his head. "Yeah… Okay, yeah. That doesn't sound completely horrible, so… Okay, here I go." It took him a moment to align his board the exact way he wanted it to before lifting off.

He fell within seconds.

"You okay?" Hayner called out.

Roxas shot him a glare hidden behind his goggles and stood back up. "Yeah. I got this. The snow's just a little slick." He started moving again, slowly. Hayner waited patiently for Roxas to take his first turn. Surprisingly, he did okay. The pattern wasn't too different from skiing, but Roxas hadn't built up the muscle memory for it yet. Hayner had little doubt his friend would be perfect at it in no time.

Roxas only fell a one more time before reaching the bottom. Once he was there, he started trying out what little stunts he could pull off, like how high he could jump, and what landing was like in the snow. He waved at Hayner to signal his safe landing.

Hayner honestly liked to ski, too. However it felt more like it was the mountain chill that he loved more than anything else. Sure, there were mountains in California, but nothing compared to this. From the top of the bunny hill he could see for miles. It hadn't snowed since they got there, and the skies were open with the deepest shade of blue that just doesn't exist in the city.

For a moment, as he was turning down the hill, he wondered if he had made a mistake going to California. Up until he moved away to Traverse, he'd never left his home in Twilight Town. He felt like his heart was split between two places that he loved very much. Was he trying to fix something that wasn't broken? The friends he had in Twilight were great, but so were his friends in Traverse. Plus, he'd reconnected with Seifer, and as weird as their relationship had been, Hayner was looking forward to something more rewarding with his old rival.

As he approached the final turn on the slope, his mind started flooding with thoughts about _Seifer_. The way his right hook would sting and leave a bruise. The way his hair always seemed sun bleached even though he spent so much time wearing that stupid beanie. The way his body was carefully sculpted after moving out west, and how it glistened having just stepped out of a shower in the morning light breaking in from his bedroom window. His heart was about to go into a very deep and profound place before he wiped out on the last turn.

Everyone was laughing at him until they realized he wasn't getting up. Olette was the first to get her skis off and she rushed to his side. "Hayner! Ohmygod, are you okay?"

The boy rolled onto his back and sighed. His ankle wasn't quite right. This was just perfect. Luckily, the lift attendant was nearby and used the emergency phone to call for help. An older woman wearing a winterized version of the EMS uniform zoomed up on a snow runner and checked him out.

"How does it feel?" she asked, helping Hayner get his boot off.

"Um. Not horrible, but not pleasant?"

"So not broken." Once she had his boot off and got a good look at his ankle, she simply nodded. "Swollen. Probably strained. Try to move it." Hayner winced and gave it his best shot. "Take some Advil, you'll be fine. Probably won't be getting much skiing done today, unfortunately. Hop on the back and I'll take you to your room."

The technician helped Hayner to his feet and planted him securely into the rear passenger seat of the runner.

"Wait, so he's not going to be able to ski? Like at all?" Pence asked before she took off.

"That depends, how long are you staying?"

"We just got here yesterday… We're staying for a couple days."

She nodded. "Well, then no. He won't." She turned back towards Hayner. "What's your room number, captain?"

Hayner was still stuck in awe about how his vacation ended as soon as it began. On a bunny slope no less. "We're suite twenty-seven." He couldn't feel the pain in his ankle so much at the moment, but he bet it would be sore later. Roxas had detached himself from his board and approached him.

"Well, this is embarrassing for you."

"Thanks. You guys go on ahead. I guess I'll just live with my poor life choices the rest of my life."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Don't hold out for me. This time tomorrow I'm expecting Olympic-style stunts from you?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Don't break your hip walking up the stairs, Grandpa." He held up his hand like a fist, and Hayner bumped it with his own.

"Ha ha, fuck you."

The technician revved the snow runner and Roxas backed away. Hayner could only wave pathetically as he was driven off to their room. The women helped Hayner up the stairs and into the suite the four of them were sharing. "Park yourself on the couch and I'll wrap your foot. Is there any ice in your freezer?"

Hayner couldn't remember. "Um. I can check." He started hopping on one foot towards the kitchen before the technician called him an idiot and told him again to sit on the couch. Hayner obeyed this time and she returned from the kitchen with a plastic bag filled with ice wrapped in a piece of cloth. She used an ACE bandage to help with compressing the swelling and keep his ankle from moving. While wrapping she would poke and prod and asked him what did or didn't hurt. She concluded it definitely wasn't broken, and Hayner was relieved.

"You're all set. Stay off it for a about a week or two. If the pain persists call a doctor. Keep the ice pack on. Do you need crutches?" she asked. The thought hadn't occurred to Hayner. He was still distracted by everything that had happened in the past hour. He uttered out an unsure noise before the lady cut him off. "I'll make sure someone sends you crutches."

She left to return to her shift, but Hayner was a little sad to see her go. It was awfully quiet in the suite without his friends with him. He regretted not guilt tripping Roxas into coming back with him so he could have someone to hang out with. The ottoman was pulled in front of the couch so Hayner could keep his foot elevated while facing the television. He sighed and lost himself in daytime soap operas.

A couple hours later into the early afternoon his friends returned, crashing through the door and filling the suite with laughter. Hayner had dozed off on the couch and woke up with a snort.

"Oh, dude, you missed it!" Pence laughed. "Roxas face planted five times on the square slope! It was ridiculous!"

Roxas said nothing, but looks said he'd had just about enough of his snowboard for the day. The blond kicked off his ski shoes and plopped himself down on the couch next to Hayner in a huff.

"How's your foot?" Olette asked, walking up and placing her hand softly on the bandage. "Oh-! Feels cold."

Hayner, still groggy, took a second to answer. "Yeah. There's ice on it." Only when he looked at it, it appeared the ice packet had fallen of while he was dozing. Roxas leaned forward and found it hidden by the other side of the ottoman.

"Have you tried walking at all?" Pence asked, taking of his teal jacket and helping Olette with hers.

"The nurse lady was pretty specific about keeping off it for the next couple weeks."

"That serious?" Olette said sadly. "Oh, Hayner, I'm sorry… This sucks. We don't have to stay here. Maybe we can leave early and-"

"No, no, stop," Hayner said, shaking his head. "Don't do that, it's no big deal. One of the bellboys delivered crutches earlier and I can always hop over to the lodge if I get cabin fever."

"So what exactly happened? It was such an easy slope, and you've done worse. Something distracting you or what?" Pence asked. Hayner had kind of pushed the thought to the back of his mind and instead focused on how much it sucked that he had to stay off his feet for the whole vacation and then some. But he definitely remembered exactly what he was thinking of when he tripped. All his mind could see was steam and Seifer's stupid sculpted pecs. Hayner could feel his face starting to heat up and Pence was looking at him like he expected some kind of answer.

"Uh… I guess I was just zoned out or something."

Shit. He needed to call Kairi.

**[ ][ ][ ]**

"_I'm sorry. Repeat that?"_

"I thought," Hayner said, perhaps too loudly. He glanced to the bedroom door, which was closed and he could still hear his friends watching TV on the other side, but he lowered his voice anyway. "I thought about Seifer," he whispered.

"_Okay. And then what happened? You broke your foot?"_

"Ankle. And a strain. I strained my ankle."

"_Is there a problem?"_

Hayner was silent for a moment. Was there a problem? "I'm sorry. I'm just. Not used to this."

"_You woke me up for this. I'm legally obligated to hate you right now."_

The bedroom had two twin beds that he shared with Roxas. Hayner craned his head awkwardly to read the alarm clock upside down from Roxas' bedside table. "It's three in the afternoon." He fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, keeping his injured foot on the bed with him.

"_There's like a five hour difference between us."_

Hayner did the math. "So it's ten."

"_Exactly. You woke me up during winter break before noon. Prepare to die in a fire when you get back. I can't tell you when or where, just know that it's going to happen."_

"Look, I'm sorry, alright? Something happened and you were the first person I felt like I could talk to…" Hayner could hear the sounds of Kairi shifting in bed. It sounded like he really did wake her up from sleep.

"_Remember a talk from a while back? You can call me anytime."_

"Anytime before noon."

"_No, forget about that, seriously. Tell me what's up."_

"…I crashed today because I thought about Seifer."

"_In a sexy way?"_

Hayner clenched his brow. The blinds were drawn shut and it was pretty dark in the room, but he still felt the need to apply pressure on his closed eyes. "I don't… _know_. Maybe? I thought about that one time I saw him with his shirt off?"

"_Ooh, really? Is he hot? Riku said he was ripped."_

"Ugh, he told you that?"

"_Ripped Van Seifer."_

Hayner found himself chuckling. "Stop it."

"_So you thought about Seifer grinding you against his washboard abs and that made you wipe out and ski off a cliff where you shattered your precious foot bones into millions of tiny splinters. Is that correct?"_

_Now_ Hayner was blushing. "In so many words…"

"_Look, it's cool. You can't always control your thought process, man. A daydream can pop into your head just as easily as a nighttime dream, and you don't have any control over it. If you only knew how often I daydream about boning Riku."_

"Kairi!"

"_Oh, come ON, have you looked at him? Like REALLY looked at him? Screw Sora for having a chance. But you see, that's the thing: I'm not going to act on these daydreams. They're just pleasant little thoughts to get me through the day. I mean- can you imagine being in a relationship with Riku?"_

Hayner honestly couldn't, but he assumed it would be pretty terrible. It took Riku a very long time to warm up to anybody. It felt like the only reason he opened up to Hayner was out of pity. "So you think I shouldn't worry about it?"

"_I'm saying you should wipe the entire thing from your memory, if that's what you want."_ Hayner hated that she tacked that last bit on there.

"I don't know what I want…"

"_Well, I'm not sure about you, but if I were in your situation, it'd sure be nice to have some pleasant daydreams to help pass the time. In a fun way. If you know what I mean. Nudge." _She even made a clicking noise with her tongue.

"Okay I'm hanging up now."

"_I'M TALKING ABOUT MA-"_

Hayner knew very well what she was talking about and ended the call before she had a chance to say it. The thought of getting off on mental images of Seifer was just… too _out there_. Hayner frowned.

"This isn't what I moved away for _at all_," he muttered to himself, continuing his staring contest with the ceiling, as a little voice in the back of his mind replied _'Isn't it?'_

He growled and wrenched himself off the bed, trying his best not to follow that train of thought… at least for now. He picked up his crutches that he'd placed on the floor and wobbled out to the living room where his friends were watching Jeopardy.

"_Ooh, I'm sorry, the correct question was 'What is Deep Throat.'" _Hayner was about to punch Alex Trebek in the face. He watched on the screen as the contestant squandered all his money on the wrong Final Jeopardy question.

"Didja have fun talking do your _girlfriend_?" Olette asked in a teasing way.

"I already told you she's not…" Hayner sighed. What was the point? He took his spot back on the couch with the ottoman holding his foot up. "No, I didn't."

"Is there something wrong?" she asked. "I know you're upset because of your ankle. It's okay to be, you know."

This entire week was going to be difficult if he was going to spend it around three people he didn't feel comfortable talking to about such _delicate_ subject matter. Honestly, of course Hayner was bummed out about his ankle, but the property that the slopes were on was so gorgeous that it wouldn't be difficult to find something else to do. He decided on purposely misplacing his aggression for the sake of his friends.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just upset that my vacation took this turn," he said. "But it'll be okay, I promise."

They spent the rest of the afternoon watching daytime game shows instead of skiing. Soon it was dinnertime, and they were debating whether or not to eat the leftovers from last night's dinner or go out to eat at one of the food places the resort had to offer. They decided to eat out at one of the sit-down dining rooms.

The food was served from a buffet, so Hayner had to follow Pence on his crutches and point out the different foods he wanted. Normally he tried to eat a variety but… screw it. It's his vacation and he screwed up his ankle. He was going to eat a mountain of macaroni and cheese, damnit.

The four of them found a spot to sit by a window. "It's so pretty outside!" Olette cooed. It really was, with mountains as far as the eye could see. And while Hayner appreciated these mountains very much, he'd give anything to be riding a bus to downtown Traverse and hitting up the clubs, with his foot in perfect working order, of course.

The table was relatively quiet while the group started to gorge. It was Olette who tried to strike up conversation again. "So, how are things at school? Are you still getting along with your friends?"

"Oh yeah," Hayner said happily, with his mouth full. He swallowed quickly. "I had Thanksgiving at my friend Riku's brothers' restaurant. Riku has three older brothers and they all work together at this one club downtown. It's actually really hip! Riku's grandparents own the studio that films Tetralogy, did I tell you guys? It sounds totally crazy over there."

Hayner found himself rambling about Riku, and he didn't stop until Pence interrupted. "If you love Riku so much why don't ya marry him?" he teased, but it was enough to stop Hayner from talking.

"I think it's cool," Roxas said, coming to Hayner's defense. The blond turned to the couple sitting across from them. "Have you guys seen the show? It's great…"

"I don't have time for much television," Olette sighed. "But tell us more about Kairi! What's she like?"

"Okay. I'm only going to talk about Kairi if you promise to listen to me when I tell you there is _nothing going on between us_. She is my friend. She is not my girlfriend," Hayner stated slowly to all his friends. "Girlfriend: No. Sister from another mister: Yes."

"We get it," Pence said, glancing up at the ceiling.

"Okay. As long as we're all on the same page… I think Kairi's awesome. She's really great at giving advice and she's always standing up for me. I can talk to her about anything."

"So why aren't you giving things a shot with her?" Olette asked.

_Because she isn't Seifer_. Hayner pursed his lips and tried to think of a proper way to answer. "She's not what I want right now. I want a friend, not a girlfriend…"

"Well, my friend, you are missing out," Pence said, wrapping his arm around Olette's shoulder and smothering her with over-the-top kisses. Olette played along while Hayner rolled his eyes and Roxas slowly shook his head.

"Oh!" Olette gasped, suddenly remembering something and sitting up at the table. "I almost forgot! What about Seifer?" She had a large smile plastered on her face. Hayner prayed she didn't notice the color fading from his face or comment on the odd sound of an anvil dropping to the pit of his stomach. "Last we heard you thought he worked at Riku's brothers' club? Did you ever go back to find him?"

Hayner gulped. "Um… yeah! And it was totally him."

"_Really!?"_ Olette squealed. Pence was intrigued and even Roxas was interested.

"What?" the blond asked. "I hadn't heard of this."

"Hayner went out partying one night and thought he saw Seifer bartending. Oh, so Seifer's a bartender now?" she asked.

"Did his big modeling career not take off?" Pence added sarcastically.

"Kind of?" Hayner answered. "But not for a lack of trying. He's still going to auditions for acting, which is… weird. I mean, he's never shown an interest in acting. I wonder why he suddenly thought moving to California would be smart." He notices that his three friends were staring at him questioningly. "…What?"

"You're serious?" Pence asked.

"Like, really?" Olette added.

"Guys, what?"

Roxas was the first to step up and answer his question. "Dude, Seifer was a theatre kid for like two years. His junior and senior year." He looked to Pence for confirmation, because Pence knew everything. The boy nodded in confirmation.

"His starring role was as the lead's best friend in an original play that was the fall production. It was a comedy, I believe."

Hayner blinked. He leaned back into chair and blinked again. "…Why don't I remember this?"

"Maybe you took that advice of 'forgetting everything about Seifer' a bit too seriously," Olette replied

Hayner tried to think about it a little harder. Seifer _could_ be a theatre kid. It wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility. By that time Hayner wasn't ignoring Seifer anymore so much as the older boy had been wiped from the plane of existence. It wouldn't have mattered if Seifer was a theatre kid or a jock or a hipster d-bag.

"Crazy," Hayner said with a shrug. "I guess everything makes sense now. A little bit. Maybe. Did anybody see that play?" He kind of missed it back in the day when watching school plays was mandatory. Their high school wasn't a fan of doing that.

"I did," Pence said, apparently a surprise for everyone.

"_Really?_" Olette asked. "When? …_Why?_"

Pence shrugged his shoulders. "It was junior year, we hadn't dated yet. I dunno, I think I was stuck at school later studying and there was a showing that night so I decided to check it out."

Hayner raised a brow. "Was he any good?"

Pence paused for a moment to recall. "…Actually, yeah. Kinda. I guess, I mean, it's been a while, but I remember being surprised seeing his name in the program. His character was really energetic. It's something that seemed out of character."

"Seifer? Energetic?" Roxas asked, and Hayner had to agree. The only time when Seifer seemed active in high school was when he and Hayner were going at it.

"I know, it was crazy, now that I think about it," Pence agreed with a chuckle. "And I remember seeing him walking the halls the next week and he was glowering like usual."

"Jeez, did he think he was going to get teased for being a theatre kid?" Olette sighed, picking at her food.

"Probably more like he thought he'd get teased for being sociable," Hayner scoffed. Still, the mental image of Seifer smiling and acting friendly, even if it was an act for a play, was one that he regretted missing in real life. "I'm surprised I didn't hear people talk about it."

"They did." Hayner was a little shook when Pence, Olette, and Roxas responded with the same words at the same time.

"At least, I remember people talking about it… All that was over a year ago," Roxas elaborated. "I thought it was interesting, but didn't think about it too much."

"I think it interested the senior class more than anything," Olette added. "I was in yearbook that year, and there were a ton of seniors in that class. They made a two-page collage about it, I think… But I was in charge of junior class stuff."

Hayner had to think about what he was up to junior year. It was probably all National Honors Society and test prep for the SATs. God, his life was boring. He _wished_ he had spent more time doing something fun like theatre and partying. It's not like all that studying actually paid off or anything. One could only hope he never become a motivational speaker for kids.

Dinner was passable. Walking back to the suite afterwards was a little tricky after the sun had set and it was a little harder to spot patches of ice under the streetlights. By the time they were home Roxas, Pence, and Olette were exhausted.

"And we still have two more days of this," Olette moaned, like it was a fate worse than death. "I'm going to go the sleep early." She said her goodnights to the boys and left to the master bedroom on the left side of the den.

Shortly after she was gone, Pence followed. "Yeah. I should probably hit the hay, too. Night guys."

Hayner already had a comfortable spot on the couch and figured he'd watch some television. "Do me a favor and turn the volume up a little bit," Roxas requested. "Something tells me they aren't going to sleep right away…"

Hayner grimaced and turned the volume up a notch or two above what was comfortable. After about thirty minutes of awkwardly watching a fuzzy episode of CSI, Roxas decided he was going to go to bed, too, and snuck off to the bedroom to the right. Left to his own devices, Hayner found himself irreconcilably bored.

That is, until an hour and a half into his late-night talk show roundup when his phone buzzed at him, shocking him out of his half-asleep stupor.

"_When r u cming back?"_

A text. From Seifer. Hayner stared at his phone in a daze until he realized what had happened. Seifer was wondering when Hayner was returning to California. The student didn't know how to respond. There was no way Seifer could possibly know all that was going through his head that day, but it was crazy how he texted _now_, of all times.

Before Hayner could craft a response, his phone buzzed again. _"D2hang next Sat.?"_

Next Saturday? Hayner would be back in town by then. Dorms opened up again the following Thursday and his plane time guaranteed he'd be there by Thursday night. He was suddenly seriously looking forward to getting back to the west coast. _"Sounds good,"_ Hayner started to type. He wasn't sure if he should dumb down the text a little bit. Seifer's cell phone screen was tiny and probably couldn't handle long text messages. _"Gimme deets soon k?"_ Ugh. He hated this. His visibly winced as he hit the send button.

It was a little past midnight at the lodge, but that meant that Stigma probably hadn't switched over to club-time yet and Seifer was bored waiting for work to start. He imagined him standing behind the bar, arms crossed, wearing that white button-up shirt and crisp black apron that was the uniform for the staff, and waiting nonchalantly for a text from Hayner.

His phone buzzed. _"Wht music u like?"_

Oh, jeez. Hayner had never really thought of it before. Classical music was helpful with studying and reading. Dance music was fun at the clubs, but he wouldn't really listen to it anywhere else. Hip-hop was good workout music. Rock music was fun while driving, but he hadn't driven since he moved. He went to a couple punk shows in high school that were put on by friend's garage bands, but none of it was any good.

"_Surprise me,_" he texted back.

A reply came quickly. _"lol. Ur funeral, chicky."_

Hayner frowned. _Chicky?!_ And what did he mean by funeral? Hayner decided that the proper response was no response at all. He grimly locked his phone and turned his attention back to the other glowing screen in the room. Apparently Balthier Bunansa was the guest on Late Night, chatting up the host about how spectacular the Christmas special for _Tetralogy_ was going to be and how everyone should look forward to his new movie. Hayner put himself in Seifer's shoes as he watched the interview.

"Some people have all the luck," he muttered to himself before turning the television off. He decided to turn in for the night and hobbled into the bedroom where Roxas was snoring loudly. As Hayner slept, he dreamed of a world where Seifer was the highest paid television actor of all time and would get mobbed on the streets for autographs.

He woke up with a start when he heard the sound of the front door slam shut and his friends laughing from outside. It was still relatively dark in the room, but that probably because the curtains were drawn. Hayner reached over to his bedside table and grabbed his alarm clock, pulling it away so it was closer to his face. It was eight-thirty in the morning. It wasn't exactly _late_ but it certainly felt early enough to be aggravated, and he sympathized with Kairi for a moment.

His friends had all left to go skiing. He supposed they didn't wake him up to be polite, but just because he'd hurt his ankle didn't mean he wouldn't mind spending time outdoors. It was nice and warm under the covers and he didn't really want to leave, but what was the point of being on vacation if he was just going to waste it in bed? He removed the covers and placed his feet on the floor. The muscles in his legs twitched and shot pain up through his body. It felt like he could feel it in his fingertips as he winced and cursed.

For whatever reason he didn't take a shower yesterday when his body was still slightly numb to the pain. He couldn't shower with the compression bandage on, so while he turned on the water and waited for it to heat up, he sat on the toilet and slowly started to unravel the bandage. His ankle looked a little red, but it definitely didn't look as bad as it felt.

"This _sucks_," he moaned loudly, knowing no one could hear him in the empty room. His legs felt antsy after not being able to move for most of yesterday. It killed him to think this would be his life for the next week. He tried to do some stretches, but it didn't help. He felt like there was an itch inside that he couldn't scratch.

And for some reason his mind reeled back to the conversation he had with Kairi yesterday. About pleasant daydreams and images of Seifer in the shower, and maybe having some happy solo fun times would help take the edge off. Steam was starting to build up in the unoccupied shower and spill out into the bathroom and fog up the mirror.

Hayner couldn't believe he was doing this. He quickly shucked off his shirt and tried his best not to agitate his ankle to get his pants off. There aren't any alluring or flowery words to describe what Hayner did in that shower. It was all skill. Despite trying his best to push Seifer as far to the back of his mind as possible, and maybe focus on that hot girl from _Tetralogy _or, hell, even Balthier, but it felt pretty pointless. Hayner was no longer master of his domain, and somehow he managed to lose it while balancing on one foot. The last few thoughts wafting through his mind like steam were Seifer's rock-hard abs and imagining his hands holding onto Hayner the same way it held onto a cocktail mixer.

"You've been out of it all evening," Olette said.

Hayner blinked out of his daze and found himself sitting in the restaurant near the lodge with Olette, Pence, and Roxas. Olette was snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"Helloooo~! Earth to Hayner!"

He shook his head and tried to focus on his friend. "Yeah. Sorry. The day's been a blur of napping and daytime TV. It wasn't exactly how I was expecting it."

"Did you go outside at all?" Pence asked.

Hayner turned his attention grimly towards his plate. After about two hours of soap operas he got bored and jerked off again just for the hell of it. This time there was a more concrete story. In it, Seifer had amnesia after an airplane crash and the only thing he remembered was Hayner's soft touch. They made love with a passion so intense that it brought Seifer's memories back. It was all very beautiful.

"Hayner!" Olette said loudly, making the boy jump out of his skin. "Pence asked you a question. What's up?"

"I'm… sorry, guys. I think the strain might be wrecking my immune system. I'm feeling a little sick."

Olette immediately had on her poor-puppy-dog eyes and reached across the table to feel his face. "I guess you feel a little warm. We'll be heading home tomorrow, though. Do you think it's serious? Do you need to see the nurse or head home early?"

"Nah, nothing like that. Maybe I'm just homesick."

"Do you miss your parents since you moved?" Pence asked, taking a small bite from his dinner.

"Actually…" Hayner began. Of course he missed his parents, but he was really starting to feel disconnected with this life. Olette's altruistic behavior, Pence's gossip, and Roxas' aloofness were great in high school, but it seemed out of place now that he was in college. "…I'm looking forward to going back to Traverse."

"I _know_," Olette added. "I miss my apartment so much. I love it here, but I need to get away from home before I rip my mom's face off."

Hayner and Pence chuckled. "Same here," the brunet boy added. "The weather won't be much different, but something about Twilight Town makes me want to scream. Maybe it's the lack of decent coffee." Olette hummed in agreement.

Hayner was expecting Roxas to speak up any moment, but noticed the boy was being _extra_ aloof tonight. He glanced to his side and saw the boy had his cell phone in his lap hidden halfway under the table, texting ferociously.

"Watcha got going on there, Roxy?" Hayner asked with a friendly sneer. Roxas looked up for a moment, and the look of embarrassment seemed out of place on the blond's usually poised face.

"Nothing," Roxas replied, with not a hint of stutter. "Classmate has questions on a group assignment."

Olette gave him a weird look. "A group assignment? Over winter break? What class are you taking that's over a semester long?"

Roxas blinked. "It's- It's more of a campus project thing."

He was _lying_. Hayner knew Roxas and he knew when his friend was purposefully giving weak details to avoid more questioning. Olette and Pence didn't pressure him and they all soon finished their dinners and started the trek back to the room. They had to walk a little slower so Hayner could keep up on his crutches. Between pauses in the conversation Hayner swore he heard Roxas' cell phone vibrate at least three times.

When they got back into the living room, Roxas pulled his phone out of his pockets and checked for texts. He paused for a moment and glanced up from his screen. "Be right back," he mumbled before disappearing into his and Hayner's bedroom.

Pence made sure he was sharing the same dubious look with his friends. "What was _that_ about?" he said lowly. "Since when does Roxas take part in projects?"

"Maybe student government? Some campus beautification project?" Olette pondered.

Pence shook his head. "No, seriously, this is _Roxas_. I think the guy's incapable of working well with others. Like it physically _hurts_ to communicate."

It gave Hayner some peace of mind knowing that Pence and Olette were just as curious as he was. Roxas could have said something droll like _"My parents were checking up on us,"_ and it would have been fine. Hayner did love a good mystery, though. And since he couldn't ski he was willing to take any form of entertainment he could get.

Unfortunately, Hayner was no Sherlock. It pretty much amounted to the two of them laying awkwardly in their separate beds, both horribly awake and aware of each other's presence. Hayner decided to test the waters. "So… you awake?"

"No," Roxas replied, but shifted in bed so he was facing Hayner anyway. "How's the ankle?"

"Fine. So. Who were you texting today?"

So much for tact, but for as much as Hayner liked mysteries, he enjoyed answers even more. It was nearly pitch black in the room, save for the small flecks of light from the lamps outside the window breaking through the curtains. With that light Hayner was able to see Roxas lay down on his back and fold his arms behind his head. He sighed heavily.

"I got dumped."

Hayner blinked. Roxas had small love interests throughout high school, That Girl In Physics and That Girl From Homeroom stood out in particular, and while he'd gone on dates, Hayner had never known the blond for have a solid girlfriend.

"I wasn't aware you were seeing anyone," Hayner said, riding the fine line between interested and upset. "I'm sorry, dude."

"Don't be. He was a jerk."

Hayner blinked in the darkness. _He?_ He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His silence was a millisecond too long and Roxas brought his hands out from under his head to cover his face.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't… I should've said something earlier."

"No, no, there's nothing to be sorry about. It's your business, man."

"No, you're my best friend, I should've said something… I just… Don't…"

There was another short pause. Roxas' breathing had become heavier, and Hayner could tell the boy was on the verge of panic. He sat up slowly, trying not to upset his ankle. "So. Um. How long have you known? …Or, er, when did you find out? If you don't mind me asking…"

Another short pause while Roxas thought how to answer. "I don't know. Like, forever, y'know? I had crushes on boys because it felt right, and crushes on girls because that's what _was_ right. This guy," Roxas said, referring to his newly minted ex, "what my first boyfriend. I guess. I never called him that."

"Can I ask what happened?"

Roxas sighed. "Nothing horrible. He wanted to be public. I didn't."

"Do I know him?"

In the darkness, Roxas shook his head. "Nah. Some out-of-towner a couple cities east going to the same school. It's just… _impossible_ in Twilight Town. There's too much history here. People don't see you as an adult, they only see you as your past." Roxas took a moment to think. "I told my parents."

"You did?"

"Yeah. Wanna know what they said? _'I remember when you said it was gross that boys should get married, what changed?!'_ Ugh. For the record, I was like six and I still believed in cooties. But I still think getting married is gross, straight or not." Hayner chuckled. Roxas definitely wasn't the relationship type. "And then there's people who just… _know._ I think Olette knows."

"Olette? Not Pence?"

"Pence is good with relationship gossip, but only if he has proof. I always made sure not to leave any proof… Olette has her intuition. She's a genius."

"Yeah, I know…"

"So… I mean, getting laid wasn't super important to me, and… I don't want you to feel bad, but after I moved in and met you guys, it wasn't until a few years later I really felt like I was coming into my own, and I didn't want to ruin what we had going."

"You could've told me."

"I know… I should have…"

This was a pretty major hurdle, finding out your friend was gay. There was something oddly comforting about it, though. The fact that Hayner was the first to be told, not Pence or Olette, made him feel special, in a weird sort of way. It was definitely a confidence boost, and Hayner hoped that Roxas would gain confidence as well and start to feel more comfortable with himself. Hopefully maybe even starting to date guys out in the open.

Roxas' life flashed before Hayner's eyes. There were images of Roxas inviting a new boy to hang out during next year's winter break. His boyfriend would be mild mannered, but engaging, and always asking questions to fill in the blanks Roxas' quiet demeanor didn't answer. There were images of them getting married, with the group making fun of Roxas because he used to think marriage was gross. A few years after that, there were images of a baby adoption. Then the baby grew up, there were PTA meetings, high school graduation, moving out for college, becoming empty nesters, deciding to buy an RV and travel around the country, possibly even early retirement because one of them would be a astro-physics brain surgeon or something so that they'd never have to worry about money ever again.

"But thanks for saying something. You had the choice to be quiet about it. I know that's how you are sometimes… I appreciate you telling me." He heard Roxas make an embarrassed scoff, but he could sense a smile. "So how does this work, now? Do you even want a boyfriend if you don't want to go public?"

"It's… complicated. I enjoy the company, but it's not like I want to hold hands down the street and go shopping together and stuff. I just want…"

"Sex?"

Roxas shrugged. "Well. I mean, yeah, but experience shows that some people don't want to be friends with benefits, no matter how good the benefits are."

This piqued Hayner's interest. It was obvious that Olette and Pence had been having awkward sex that neither Hayner nor Roxas wanted to think about since high school, but Roxas having sex was a bit more exciting, at least for Hayner. Knowing that his friend was somewhat actively searching for companionship since his friends left town gave Hayner a positive attitude.

"Do you want to tell me about this guy?" Hayner asked.

Roxas snorted. "Are you kidding? We just broke up. I don't wanna even think about the guy."

A short pause. "Are you sleepy at all?"

"Not really…"

"Then what are we doing here?"

They threw their jackets and snow pants over their pajamas. Hayner took his crutches with him. He was having a hard time figuring out if his ankle was healing or if he was getting so used to the pain that it didn't bother him as much. However, when he put any sort of weight on his strain his nerves told him he still had quite a ways to go.

There was a bar that shared a roof with the restaurant they had eaten at earlier that evening. It was late enough that the restaurant was roped off, but the bar scene was hopping. Too bad Hayner couldn't hop. There wasn't a bouncer, and it seemed like most of the people there were a bit older anyways. The music was different, too. A bit more country rock compared to the electronic dance music back west. It seemed to be the music Roxas was used to, though.

"I like this one," the blond said, nodding his head to the beat of the bass drum thumping heavily through a subwoofer near their feet. Since Hayner's crutches got in the way more than anything, they were self-exiled to the empty side of the bar where the bartenders appeared to be paying little mind. "I'm gonna go get us some drinks," Roxas said, reaching for his wallet.

"I got it," Hayner said, but Roxas shook his head.

"Nah man. You've had a pretty crappy weekend. I've got an ID if they ask."

"What? Lemme see!"

Roxas pulled out an ID that was real, but obviously not Roxas. The guy had brown hair and his eyes were a completely different color, not to mention the shape of the chin was all wrong. Hayner shrugged and returned it to his friend. "Chyeah, you better hope they don't ask…"

Roxas rolled his eyes took his ID back. Hayner watched as he approached the bar and waited for the bartender to reach him, cash in hand. They spoke a couple minutes. The bartender wiped clean a glass and said something that made Roxas reach for his wallet. Uh oh, here comes the fake ID. The bartender looked at it, raised a brow, and seemed to ask another question. Roxas pointed to Hayner, and the bartender said something else before Roxas walked away.

"Sorry, man. They need to see you're ID too."

Hayner thunked his head on the wall behind him. "Seriously? Don't these crutches get me a _'Get fucked up free'_ card or something?"

Roxas shrugged. "Let's get out of here. There's wine back in the room."

"I don't want to drink wine."

"What _do_ you want, dude?" Roxas asked, on the verge of being frustrated.

"I don't… _know!_ This whole weekend hasn't been a disaster so much as an eye-opening experience for me." They made their way through the small lobby area and braced themselves for the cold outside.

"What did you experience?" Roxas replied, holding the door open for Hayner as he limped out on his crutches.

Hayner didn't even know where to begin. Although Roxas had opened up to his earlier in the evening, Hayner wasn't really ready to start chatting about _his_ sexual frustrations just yet. There wasn't a sufficient amount of evidence to prove that Seifer was anything more than a crush.

"I think I've met someone."

It was so vague and he could see Roxas having some trouble parsing what he was supposed to understand from that comment. "Someone, like… a girlfriend? …Boyfriend?"

"Exactly."

Roxas hummed and nodded his head. "Yeah. We're going to need some drinks."

Which was what spurred Roxas to take Olette's keys from the kitchenette counter and drive himself and Hayner down the mountain to a gas station to buy a cheap six-pack with his fake ID. They drove a little bit further down the main road to where it split off into a scenic route. There wasn't much to see this late at night, but eventually they make to a lookout point, which was probably very beautiful in the daylight, but instead looked like a sea of darkness. The stars were really pretty, though.

It was cold outside, but they got out of the car and sat on the hood, where the engine was still warm. Roxas used the bottle opener on his keychain to crack open a beer for himself and Hayner. They rested their backs on the windshield and watched the clear night sky.

"So," Roxas said, breaking the ice, "when did you know?"

"I don't think I know anything."

"Does he go to Traverse?"

"Nah…" Hayner's heart started to beat a little faster.

"Where'd you guys meet?"

Hayner didn't answer for a moment. He took a swig from his beer to buy him more time. "Um… We met at a bar."

"_Really?_ What do you know about him? I mean. No offense or anything but I've never really seen you go after anyone before."

Hayner gave him a look. "Well, _no offense_, but same to you, buddy." He took another drink. It was difficult to think about Seifer this way. What exactly was it about him that made Hayner's heart skip a beat? What made his face quirk into an awkward smile when he thought about him? Seifer hadn't really done much, except stand around looking handsome. "He's nice looking," Hayner stated, as a start.

"'Nice' like he's a nice guy or 'nice' like he's hot?"

"_Roxas!"_

"I'm curious. C'mon, Twilight Town sucks. There's nobody to talk to about shit like this!"

"He's… nice looking. I guess." Hayner was thankful it was both cold and dark outside because he could feel his face starting to heat up just talking about it. He wasn't exactly a spectacular liar so he hoped Roxas wouldn't delve too deep with questions.

"Is he a gym guy?"

Hayner sighed. "…Yeah."

"Arms, core, or legs?"

"Um… all of them, I guess. Maybe a little less on the legs?"

"You're a leg guy though, aren't you?"

Hayner shook his head. "I don't _know_, Rox. What the hell does it mean to be a leg guy?"

"I dunno. I like a guy with decent calves. Does he have a nice face?"

This was getting ridiculous. Hayner started chuckling. "Yes, he has a nice face."

"Baby face? Distinguished? How old is he?"

"Just a normal, symmetrical face, save for a scar when he was a kid."

Roxas shrugged. "Well, we've all got those."

"He's about our age, I-" Hayner hesitated a second. "I haven't really asked yet."

"Do you guys date or is it just 'hanging out.'"

"We haven't done anything like that. I don't even know if he's into me like that."

Roxas shifted a bit, leaning up on his elbow to look down at Hayner. "Well, he's gay, right?"

It was weird hearing Roxas speak so frankly. Hayner was never the biggest fan of labels. They seemed so permanent. You don't walk up to a person and say_, "You have a wife? Didn't you say you were gay?" _without uncovering some heavy issues.

"I'm not sure?" Hayner asked with a lilt at the end. Roxas' face was hard to make out in the moonlight, but the boy seemed unimpressed.

"…Be careful, man. That's a tricky slope."

"Don't worry about me. Chances are nothing will happen, it's just… I like him. And I don't really understand why."

"Well, take my advice: it'd be better to tell him quickly rather than spending so much time with him that you don't want to confess because it could ruin the friendship." Roxas started chugging the last of his bottle, leaving Hayner a moment of silence to think about what he'd just said.

If that was Roxas' personal advice, who was the boy Roxas would rather hide from than express his feelings? It couldn't be…

Hayner followed Roxas' example and finished off the last of his first bottle of beer quickly. His friend grabbed another bottle for both of them and popped the caps.

"Will you be good to drive?" Hayner asked. With his condition he imagined it would be difficult trying to drive up a mountain with a bum ankle.

"I'm good," Roxas sighed, leaning back down against the windshield. A small void of silence was filled with an owl hooting occasionally. Hayner would think it'd be relaxing if it weren't for his mind going a million thoughts per second. "So," Roxas broke the quiet, "any other guys you've scoped out?"

"…Not really," Hayner eventually replied. He gave his friend a sidelong glance. "What about you?"

"There's a couple… I take a night class and there's this one guy who seems kind of dumb, but has amazing cheekbones. I used to think I didn't care but…" Roxas shrugged. He continued on like that, describing the different guys that he liked on his campus and whether or not he planned on pursuing them. It was probably the most personal conversation Hayner had ever experienced with Roxas. The boy had his moments where he would talk at length about dreams and aspirations, but this time it felt different.

After nearly an hour of sitting out in the cold the boys were starting to get uncomfortably shivery. That, and Olette sending out two texts that read _"Guys I want my car back,"_ and _"I'm serious,"_ prompted them to make a hasty retreat.

On the drive back to the lodge Hayner felt overwhelmingly peaceful. He couldn't tell whether it was because the heater was starting to kick in from the car or all the details Roxas revealed that seemed to cement their relationship even closer. Hayner decided he didn't care how Roxas felt about him. Romantic or not, that was in the past and it didn't make Hayner feel uncomfortable at all to be around Roxas. He supposed that's what it meant being a best friend.

They got a lecture from Olette, although it was in a harsh whisper so as not to wake up Pence in the other room. She had simply woken up for a glass of water when she realized her car keys were gone. Checking the clock on the microwave, it was nearly four in the morning.

"We're waking up in three hours to hit the road," she hissed. "Are you guys even packed?!"

"We're packed, everything's fine," Hayner sighed. "We weren't sleepy yet so we decided to go for a drive."

Olette wrinkled her nose. "You smell like beer."

"…And some drinks."

Hayner had been used to Olette's death glares before he moved to California, but after four months of not receiving them every day, it seemed to sting more than usual. "You know what? I don't want to know." She turned to look at Roxas. "You didn't crash it, did you?"

"Not a scratch."

Olette shook her head. Without saying another word, she simply took her keys and went back into her bedroom. Hayner turned to look at Roxas.

"But no really, we should pack or she's going to kill us."

**[ ][ ][ ]**

Hayner wished that living across the country would help him grow used to long plane flights. Five hours just seemed ridiculous. Organic creatures are born, lay eggs, and die in that time. He had a window seat and was trying his best not to repeatedly smack his forehead against the plastic screen.

In the week between straining his ankle and leaving to go back to school, Hayner was able to walk again without the aid of crutches. He still didn't want to overdo it by running around too much, but sitting still for five hours was just-

He took a deep breath and tried not to count down the minutes.

Their descent into SFO was alerted by a static-y overhead message from the pilot, effectively waking up from his nap. It would be another forty-five minutes before he finally made it to the baggage claim and grabbed his oversized suitcase. His mother had given him money for a cab back to campus, but he wasn't exactly sure where the cab line was. On his way to the door he passed by a bunch of chauffeurs in suits and hats, holding up signs for the people they were supposed to pick up.

Standing out like a sore thumb was Sora, Riku, and Kairi. The redheaded girl was holding a sign with his name on it and a two-foot grin.

"Hayner!" she cried, skipping up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Didja miss me?"

"Terribly."

"Hey dude!" Sora said happily. He clapped his hand on Hayner's back and he pretended not to wince. "Kairi told me you jacked up your leg."

"It wasn't _that_ bad," Hayner insisted, but didn't put up much of a struggle when Sora offered to take his suitcase.

"Have fun in the mountains?" Riku asked.

Hayner sighed and nodded. "Yeah… but it's good to be home."

**[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]**

_Thank you for reading!_


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